534 
Assay  of  Ipecac. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm» 
Nov.,  1885. 
It  has  seemed  to  the  writer  that  this  last  process,  which  is  the  best 
yet  proposed,  can  be  still  further  simplified  and  improved,  and  experi- 
ments appear  to  warrant  the  recommendation  of  a  process  like  the 
following:  Mix  10  parts  of  the  powdered  ipecacuanha  in  a  flask,  or 
other  suitable  container,  with  an  equal  weight  of  petroleum  benzin. 
Add  a  mixture  of  two  parts  of  stronger  water  of  ammonia  with  eight 
parts  of  alcohol ;  shake  the  mixture  well  and  allow  it  to  stand  a  short 
time  in  a  warm  place.  [In  my  experiments  I  allowed  the  mixture  to 
stand  from  half  an  hour  to  one  hour,  but  I  am  not  sure  that  there  is 
any  advantage  in  leaving  it  so  long  a  time  even  as  this.]  Proceed  to 
extract  the  alkaloid  by  boiling  with  successive  portions  of  petroleum 
benzin,  amounting  in  all  to  ten  or  fifteen  times  the  weight  of  the  drug. 
Filter  the  benzin  solution  while  hot  through  paper,  and  treat  it  with 
water  containing  sulphuric  acid,  which  readily  removes  the  whole  of 
the  alkaloid,  leaving  resinous  matter  in  the  benzin.  Separate  the  acid 
solution,  filter  if  necessary  to  remove  suspended  matter,  add  excess  of 
alkali  (carbonate  of  barium,  carbonate  of  sodium,  or  ammonia)  and 
take  up  the  alkaloid  with  boiling  petroleum  benzin,  as  recommended! 
by  Podwissotzky.  I  believe  that  by  this  method  it  is  practicable  to 
extract  from  ipecacuanha  of  good  quality  not  less  than  two  per  cent, 
of  alkaloid.  The  solvent  used,  although  employed  in  large  quantity, 
is  a  very  chea})  one,  and  the  loss  in  manufacturing  operations  would 
be  a  trifling  item  of  expense,  as  compared  with  that  involved  in  the 
use  of  the  more  expensive  solvents,  such  as  alcohol,  ether  or  chloro- 
form. 
The  process,  moreover,  is  one  which  can  easily  be  employed  as  art 
assay  process,  which  is  not  true  of  any  of  those  previously  passed  in 
review.  Its  advantages  for  this  purpose  are  its  simplicity  of  execution, 
and  the  rapidity  with  which  it  can  be  carried  out.  It  does  not  com- 
pletely exhaust  the  drug,  although  it  permits  us  to  extract  a  larger 
proportion  of  the  alkaloid  than  any  other  rapid  method  I  have  tried. 
By  using  a  portion  of  chloroform  in  connection  with  the  benzin,  the 
process  may  be  made  to  yield  results,  as  we  shall  see  later,  reasonably 
satisfactory.  Obviously,  in  any  case,  if  our  object  is  to  ascertain,  not 
the  absolute,  but  the  practical  value  for  the  manufacturer  of  a  given 
sample  of  ipecac,  we  should  be  justified  in  making  use  of  even  an  im- 
perfect method  of  assay,  the  results  of  which  would  indicate  the  quan- 
tity of  alkaloid  we  might  hope  to  obtain  from  the  drug. 
Of  the  methods  that  have  heretofore  been  proposed  for  the  assay  of 
