Am.  Jour.  Pharm. ) 
Nov.,  1885.  j 
Assay  of  Ipecac. 
541 
problem  in  hand  than  any  that  have  heretofore  been  proposed,  I  have 
not  had  the  time  to  elaborate  their  details  sufficiently  to  warrant  me  in 
declaring  the  problem  completely  solved.  I  trust  that  this  contribu- 
tion to  the  discussion  of  the  subject  will  be  of  some  service  in  directing 
future  effort  towards  its  final  solution. 
The  practical  result  of  my  experiment  has  had,  at  any  rate,  this 
outcome,  that  it  has  given  me  increased  confidence  in  the  method  of 
Dragendorff,  which  I  have  heretofore  regarded  with  a  certain  amount 
of  distrust. 
In  concluding  this  paper,  I  have  thought  it  might  be  of  interest  to 
give  a  summary  of  some  of  the  results  of  the  assays  I  have  had  occa- 
sion to  make  of  ipecac,  and  of  its  preparations,  premising  that  their 
results  have  been  obtained  by  the  use  of  Dragendorff 's  method  of 
assay,  when  not  otherwise  stated. 
Of  48  samples  of  crude  drug  examined  5  contained  less  than  2  per 
cent,  emetine  (minimum  1*65  per  cent.),  10  contained  between  2  and 
2'5  per  cent.,  23  between  2*5  per  cent,  and  3  per  cent.,  and  10  upward 
of  3  per  cent.  The  following  items  of  description  are  noted  in  con- 
nection with  some  of  the  samples  : 
Per  cent. 
Thin  roots,  nearly  black   2*2 
Flesh  colored,  "bold"  sample   2-85 
Flesh  colored,  good  appearance   2"1 
Thin,  dark  root   1-65 
"Bold  "sample  (white)   2-25 
  2-75 
Pale  flesh  color   3-00 
White,  bold,  tender  roots   2*7 
"        "     woody   2-6 
Dark  colored,  much  broken   2-8 
Solid  extract  of  ipecac  has  ranged  in  content  of  alkaloid  from  8.9  to 
10*3  per  cent.  Powdered  extract,  from  6  to  7*5  per  cent.  Fluid  ex- 
tracts made  by  the  U.  S.  P.  process  contain  generally  less  than  1*5 
per  cent.  Made  by  processes  that  do  not  involve  tlie  use  of  heat,  the 
percentage  is  higher  but  does  not  generally  exceed  2  to  2.25,  and  often 
falls  short  of  this.  The  samples  examined  have  been  those  of  a  number 
of  manufacturing  firms,  and  many  of  them  are  regarded  as  articles  of 
excellent  quality. 
The  time  must  very  soon  come  when  the  alkaloidal  strength  of  ga- 
lenical preparations  of  all  active  drugs  will  be  regulated  by  our  official 
