THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY 
JANUARY,  1878. 
LABORATORY  NOTES  ON   FLUID  EXTRACT  OF 
CIMICIFUGA. 
By  J.  U.  Lloyd,  Cincinnati,  O. 
The  Pharmacopoeia  directs  to  make  this  extract  with  stronger  alco- 
hol. I  will  not  in  the  present  article  report  any  of  my  experiments 
with  different  menstruums  ;  this  paper  can  embrace  only  a  few  inves- 
tigations without  being  longer  than  I  desire  it  to  be,  consequently  I 
select  those  in  which  I  operated  upon  small  amounts  of  material,  as 
such  correspond  with  the  requirements  of  the  Pharmacopoeia.  They 
were  instituted  and  form  the  part  of  a  series  intended  to  instruct  me 
for  my  laboratory  work,  so  that  I  could  as  nearly  as  possible  under- 
stand the  comparative  value  of  the  processes  which  have  from  time  to 
time  been  recommended  for  the  preparation  of  fluid  extracts.  I  assume 
that  the  menstruum  directed  by  the  U.  S.  P.  is  capable  of  completely 
extracting  the  principles  which  give  to  dry  cimicifuga  its  therapeutical 
value.  It  may  not  be  out  of  place  to  say  that  my  experience  teaches 
me  that  either  water  or  glycerin  injures  the  fluid  extract  of  this  drug. 
I  also  assume,  in  the  part  of  the  line  of  experiments  which  are 
embraced  by  this  paper,  that  every  grain  of  dry  extractive  matter  has 
the  same  therapeutic  value  ;  that  one  grain  of  dry  extractive  matter 
taken  from  the  first  part  of  a  percolate  will  produce  the  physiological 
action  of  a  grain  from  any  other  portion.  This,  to  an  extent,  may  be 
inaccurate  ;  the  principle  will  not,  I  believe,  hold  good  for  articles  like 
cinchona,  hydrastis,  and  even  podophyllum  ;  but  with  such  the  rela- 
tive values  of  different  processes  of  percolation  may  be  quite  correctly 
determined  by  comparing  the  amounts  of  extractive  matter  at  similar 
stages  of  each  operation,  providing  the  strength  of  the  menstruum  is 
not  changed. 
My  experience  is  that  I  save  time  by  instituting  parallel  examples  of 
