538 
Assay  of  Ipecac. 
f  Am.  Jonr.  Phitrm. 
\       Nuv.,  1885. 
the  very  short  process  of  extraction.  That  the  alkaloid  is  an  extremely 
sensitive  one,  no  one  who  has  experimented  with  it  at  all  can  doubt. 
Even  after  it  has  been  isolated,  it  must  be  kept  in  the  dark  to  prevent 
changes  that  would  otherwise  take  place  in  it. 
Incidentally,  I  may  ask,  in  view  of  this  sensitiveness  of  the  alkaloid, 
what  shall  we  think  of  the  present  U.  S.  P.  process  for  making  fluid 
extract  of  ipecac,  with  its  complicated  manipulation  and  long  exposure 
of  the  product  to  heat. 
There  is  no  difficulty  in  preparing  a  fluid  extract  of  ipecac  with  al- 
cohol of  moderate  strength  that  will  contain,  by  DragendorflP's  mode 
of  assay,  ujj wards  of  2  per  cent,  of  emetine.  By  the  U.  S.  P.  process, 
a  drug  which  assays  3  per  cent,  alkaloid  will  produce  a  fluid  contain- 
ing less  than  1*5  per  cent.  From  the  first  mentioned  extract,  similar 
to  that  which  was  formerly  official,  it  is  easy  enough  to  prepare  a 
syrup,  although  certainly  this  cannot  be  done  by  simply  mixing  the 
fluid  extract  with  syrup ;  to  my  own  mind  the  admission  of  the 
present  formula  into  the  U.  S.  P.  is  an  unwarranted  concession  to  slip- 
shod pharmacy,  against  which  we  should  all  unite  in  protest. 
Returning  from  this  digression,  I  attack  the  main  problem  of  this 
query,''  seeking  some  simple  method  of  actual  assay  by  which  the 
whole  of  the  emetine  may  be  extracted  from  the  drug  in  a  weighable 
form. 
An  exhaustive  study  of  this  problem  Avould  require  much  more 
time  than  I  have  been  able  to  give  it.  I  have  made  many  experi- 
ments, a  large  number  of  them  having  no  value  except  as  indicating 
plans  to  be  avoided  in  future.  The  principle  to  be  adopted  in  every 
case  in  the  assay  of  a  drug  of  this  kind,  is  to  select  such  a  menstruum 
for  the  exhaustion  of  the  drug  as  shall  extract  as  completely  as  possible 
its  active  principle  and  withdraw  with  it  a  minimum  of  inert  matter. 
The  solvent  which  I  have  found  most  generally  useful  in  these  assays 
is  that  employed  by  Prollius  for  extracting  the  alkaloids  of  cinchona 
bark.  It  consists  of  a  mixture  of  ether  250  parts,  absolute  alcohol  20 
parts,  ammonia,  stronger,  10  parts.  The  general  mode  of  carrying  out 
the  assay  I  have  elsew^here  described  in  detail  ("  Druggist's  Circular,'' 
August,  1884).  As  applied  to  the  assay  of  ipecac  it  would  be  conducted 
as  follows  : 
Place  in  a  small  flask  (capacity  about  50  cc.)  2J  grams,  accurately 
weighed,  of  ipecac  in  fine  powder ;  select  a  sound  cork  to  fit  the  flask, 
and  weigh  flask  and  cork  with  the  contained  ipecac.    Fill  the  flask 
