272 
Alkaloidal  Assay  Work. 
f  Aqj.  Jour.  Pharm. 
I       June,  1900. 
solution  of  NaOH,  verifying  alkalinity  by  litmus  paper  and 
avoiding  excess  of  it.  Shake  the  contents  of  the  well-corked  bottle- 
strongly  for  about  a  minute  and  add  the  2  grammes  powdered 
tragacanth.  Shake  again  for  another  minute,  give  the  small  globules 
of  tragacanth  mucilage  time  to  settle,  decant  off  the  clear  fluid 
40  c.c.  =  2  grammes  of  the  fluid  extract,  into  an  "  Erlenmeyer"  of 
known  weight,  distil  ether,  add  the  distilled  ether  to  the  common 
stock,  dry  the  alkaloids,  by  about  500  C.,  in  a  current  of  air,  supplied 
by  a  common  rubber  "  spray  "  ball,  to  constant  weight,  which  is 
obtained  in  about  fifteen  minutes'  time.  Multiply  by  50,  to  obtain 
per  cent?,  and  the  assay  is  finished. 
Quinine  tannate  is  assayed  for  its  quinine  by  dividing  1-5  grammes 
with  a  little  water  to  a  homogeneous  mixture,  adding  75  c.c.  ethyl 
ether,  making  carefully  alkaline  with  the  given  solution  of  NaOH, 
shaking  first  without,  and  afterwards  with  2  grammes  powdered 
tragacanth,  decanting  50  c.c.  =  1  gramme  quinine  tannate,  treating 
as  above,  placing  the  decimal  at  two  points  to  the  right,  for  the 
multiplication  to  percentage. 
For  solid  narcotic  extracts  Rusting  employed  the  chloroform- 
petroleum  ether  mixture,  previously  recommended  by  Schwickerath 
(supra),  and  titrated  as  commonly. 
Extract  Fluid  Hydrastis  is  treated  separately  by  the  author.  He 
takes  10  grammes,  dilutes  with  20  c.c.  water,  boils  slowly  in  an 
Erlenmeyer  of  about  100  c.c.  capacity,  until  a  little  less  than  20 
grammes  remains,  cools  off,  brings  the  weight  to  20  grammes, 
shakes  with  some  infusorial  earth  (kieselguhr),  and  filters.  Ten 
grammes  of  the  filtrate  is  transferred  (weighed)  into  a  medicine  bot- 
tle of  about  100  c.c.  capacity,  25  c.c.  pure  ether  added  and  later  on 
3  c.c.  ammonia  water  of  10  per  cent.,  shaken  together.  Twenty-five 
c.c.  petroleum  ether  is  now  added,  the  whole  agitated  again  ;  lastly 
2  grammes  pulverized  tragacanth  added,  shaken  anew,  allowed  to 
settle  and  40  c.c.  =  4  grammes  fluid  extract  of  the  clear  fluid  taken. 
This  is  deprived  of  its  ethyl  ether  by  immersion  of  the  flask  con- 
taining the  40  c.c.  and  rotating  into  water  of  300  to  35 0  C,  for  a  few 
minutes;  ethyl  ether  will  evaporate  off  hereby  ;  the  flask  is  cooled 
down,  when  about  two-thirds  remains,  is  well  corked,  put  aside  for 
a  few  hours  in  a  cool  place  in  winter  and  into  a  freezing  mixture  in 
the  summer  time,  and  the  hydrastine  left  to  crystallize  out.  The 
supernatant  fluid  is  decanted,  the  crystals  dried  and  weighed  as 
usual.    Results  y  25  =  per  cent.;  quantitatively  satisfactory. 
