Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Feb.,  1887. 
Tincture  of  Strophanthus. 
99 
NOTE  ON  TINCTURE  OF  STROPHANTHUS.* 
By  W.  Martindale. 
The  researches  of  Drs.  Fraser  and  Ringer  on  strophanthus,  the 
kombe"  arrow  poison,  and  the  publication  by  the  former  of  his  paper,, 
read  at  the  Cardiff  Meeting  of  the  British  Medical  Association  (Brit. 
Med.  Journ.,  vol.  ii.,  1885,  p.  904),  have  lately  attracted  much  atten- 
tion to  this  drug.  Unfortunately  a  supply  of  it  is  difficult  to  obtain. 
A  paper  on  the  species  of  strophanthus  used  in  medicine  was  read  at 
the  Evening  Meeting  here  on  March  10,  1886,  by  Mr.  Holmes 
(Pharm.  Journ.,  1886,  p.  778,  Am.  Jour.  Phar.  1886,  406).  Since 
then  a  supply  of  the  drug  has  been  received  by  Messrs.  Christy  &  Co.? 
and  a  formula  for  the  tincture  has  been  published  by  Messrs.  Bur- 
roughs, Wellcome  &  Co..  (Pharm.  Journ.,  1886,  p.  304,  A.  J.  P.. 
1886,  405),  on  the  authority  of  Dr.  Fraser.  It  ;directs  that 
1  ounce  of  the  seeds,  first  deprived  of  their  oil  or  fat  by  means 
of  ether,  is  to  be  percolated  with  rectified  spirit  to  produce  8 
fluidounces  of  tincture.  As  pharmacists  have  looked  with  some 
suspicion  on  the  employment  of  ether  for  the  extraction  of  the  fixed 
oils  from  such  drugs  before  making  pharmaceutical  preparations  of 
them,  for  example  in  the  present  process  for  making  extract  of  stra- 
monium and  in  the  now  discarded  process  for  making  liquid  extract 
of  ergot,  I  therefore  wrote  to  Dr.  Fraser  pointing  this  out,  stating  my 
fear  that  some  of  the  activity  of  the  strophanthus  seeds  might  be 
removed  by  the  ether,  and  mentioning  also  that  as  there  was  a  tend- 
ency to  decimal  proportions  for  these  preparations,  I  thought  that  a 
1  in  10  tincture  would  be  preferable.  I  concluded  by  saying  that  I 
should  be  glad  to  have  a  reply  from  him  in  corroboration  or  otherwise 
of  the  formula  published  by  the  above-mentioned  firm.   He  replies  : — 
"  The  active  principle  of  strophanthus  is  practically  insoluble  in 
ether,  and  therefore  it  is  quite  a  suitable  solvent  for  the  oil  whose 
presence  is  objectionable  in  the  tincture. 
u  I  have  used  a  tincture  of  various  strengths.  Seeds  alone  without 
hairs  1  in  8  of  rectified  spirit  was  adopted  because  of  its  being  the 
strength  of  tinct.  of  digitalis,  and  the  dose  of  such  a  tincture  is  2  to 
4  minims. 
"  As  this  dose  is  inconveniently  small,  especially  for  children,  I 
now  generally  use  a  tincture  of  half  the  strength,  1  in  16. 
*Read  at  an  Evening  Meeting  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Society  of  Great  Brit- 
ain, Wednesday,  November  17. 
