100 
Tincture  of  Strophanthus. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Feb.,  1887. 
"One  in  10  would  not  get  over  this  difficulty.  Ihe  dose  of  the 
tincture  of  1  in  16  would,  of  course,  be  4  to  8  minims. 
"  I  have  not  seen  the  letter  of  Burroughs  &  Wellcome  to  which 
you  refer." 
He  further  writes  : — 
"  Although  the  pods  contain  active  principle,  the  relation  of  a  tinc- 
ture obtained  from  them  to  a  tincture  from  the  seeds  has  not  been 
determined.  The  two  should  not  therefore  be  used  together.  The 
preparation  I  have  used  in  therapeutic  work  has  always  been  the  tinc- 
ture from  the  seeds.  I  do  not  know  what  the  dose  would  be  of  a  tinc- 
ture from  the  combined  pods  and  seeds.  I  think  also  the  seeds  freed 
from  their  comose  appendices  should  alone  be  used.  In  reference  to 
the  preliminary  extraction  with  the  ether,  it  is  obvious  the  ether 
should  be  washed  to  remove  spirit." 
This  is  so  far  conclusive,  and  as  the  results  of  other  therapeutic 
observers  will  have  to  be  compared  with  Dr.  Fraser's,  when  tincture 
of  strophanthus  is  ordered  pharmacists  must  supply  the  tincture  of 
the  seeds  only,  deprived  of  oil.  Still,  as  the  drug  is  scarce  and  costly 
it  is  well  that  we  should  examine  it  and  try  to  utilize  all  the  parts  of 
it  that  possess  activity.  While  awaiting  Dr.  Fraser's  reply  I  pre- 
pared a  little  tincture  of  the  bruised  natural  seeds  by  percolating  one 
part  with  rectified  spirit  q.  s.  to  produce  8  fluid  parts.  It  is  labelled 
a,  is  of  a  yellowish-green  color  and  has  a  characteristic  bitter  taste. 
I  did  not  examine  the  marc  of  this  to  notice  if  it  was  exhausted. 
Nearly  one-half  the  weight  of  the  pods  now  offered  for  sale  con- 
sists of  the  linings  of  the  pericarps,  one-third  (nearly)  is  seeds,  and 
about  one-fifth  is  hairs. 
In  preparing  Dr.  Fraser's  tincture,  the  seeds  in  coarse  powder  were 
percolated  with  about  five  times  their  weight  of  ether,  specific  gravity 
0.720  (the  rectified  washed  methylated).  A  deep  emerald-green  liq- 
uid having  a  claret-colored  fluorescence  was  obtained.  It  has  depos- 
ited a  small  quantity  of  crystalline  sediment.  Evaporation  of  a  part 
of  it  shows  that  the  seeds  yield  27  per  cent,  of  dark  green  ethereal 
oil  or  oily  extract,  which  is  very  bitter  in  taste,  and  only  slightly  sol- 
uble in  rectified  spirit.  After  the  ether  was  evaporated  from  the 
marc  this  was  again  slowly  percolated  with  rectified  spirit,  1  to  pro- 
duce 8  parts  of  yellowish-green  colored  tincture  marked  b  1,  but  this 
is  much  paler  than  tincture  a.    Percolation  was  continued  fraction- 
