248 
Method  of  Cleaning  Digitalis. 
/Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
April,  19 1 8. 
very  little  moisture,  is  chiefly  parenchymatous  and  is  therefore  easily 
pulverized.  A  fine  powder  is  unquestionably  not  desired  for  the 
preparation  of  the  infusion.  It  would  be  an  improvement  if  the  U. 
S.  P.  formula  directed  the  use  of  digitalis  in  number  6  powder.  This 
would  insure  a  uniformity  in  the  degree  of  fineness  which  is  not 
likely  to  be  obtained  when  using  a  variety  of  samples  and  follow- 
ing the  present  directions. 
In  order  to  reduce  the  Minnesota  digitalis  to  a  proper  degree 
of  comminution  for  the  preparation  of  the  infusion  the  following 
process  was  employed.  The  cleaned  leaves  were  run  through  a 
sieve  having  six  meshes  to  the  linear  inch.  This  operation  resulted 
in  reducing  the  entire  product  to  fragments  of  approximately  one 
sixth  inch  in  diameter,  some  of  the  petioles  however  went  through 
the  sieve  endwise  and  were  two  inches  or  more  in  length.  Ob- 
viously it  would  have  been  difficult  to  have  packed  the  capsules  with 
these  long  petiole  fragments  present.  The  next  problem  therefore 
was  to  separate  the  long  fragments  of  petioles.  This  was  quickly 
and  efficiently  accomplished  by  running  the  broken  drug  through  an 
Owen's  Superior  Fanning  Mill  which  was  driven  by  a  2  H.  P.  motor 
and  which  was  fitted  with  screens  as  follows :  The  upper  tier  of 
screens  used  represented  a  "zinc  wheat  gang"  of  four  frames 
(having  circular  perforations  one  fifth  of  an  inch  in  diameter). 
The  lower  sand  frame  used  was  a  regular  30  X  30  wire  screen. 
The  fan  was  shut  off  entirely.  The  drug  was  then  run  through  and 
three  separations  obtained  as  follows : 
Table  IV. 
Select  and  quite  uniform  number  six  drug    7.029  Kg. 
Petiole  fragments,  1  to  8  cm.  in  length  with  practically  no 
lamina  present    1.6  Kg. 
No.  30  passing  thru  the  lower  screen  loss,  375.  Gm. 
Total  ash  determinations  were  made  of  the  three  separations, 
which  gave  the  following  results : 
Table  V. 
Select  Portion. 
Petiole  Fragments. 
No.  30  Powder. 
A  
8.85 
8.78 
I2.8I 
B  
8.97 
8-75 
13-97 
8.91 
8.76 
13-3 
