528 
Macassar  Oil. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm 
Nov.,  1893. 
value  should  have  been  introduced.  Then,  perhaps,  we  would  have 
gradually  stopped  handling  brown  stout,  porter  and  beer  under  the 
labels  of  Tom,  Dick  and  Harry's  extract  of  malt.  It  should  be  a 
medicinal  product,  not  a  beverage. 
Fluid  Extract  of  Nux  Vomica,  1890,  is  essentially  the  saturated 
tincture  suggested  by  Lyons  in  1885.  The  suggestion  of  Maisch 
to  reduce  the  alcohol  to  70  per  cent,  by  volume,  as  extracting  less 
oil,  is  practically  adopted  in  the  menstruum  of  3  vols,  of  alcohol 
and  one  volume  water  directed.  The  process  of  the  Pharmacopoeia 
is  wasteful  of  alcohol,  as  it  directs  the  extraction  of  the  drug  and 
subsequently  by  distillation  to  recover  the  alcohol  and  evaporate 
the  residue  to  a  definite  weight,  of  which  4  grms.  are  assayed  from 
the  alkaloids  calculated  in  the  entire  extract;  a  fluid  extract  is  made, 
by  dilution  with  alcohol  and  water,  of  such  a  strength  that  100  cc 
contains  1-5  per  cent,  of  total  alkaloids.  Distillation,  necessarily^ 
causes  some  loss  of  alcohol.  It  is  to  be  observed  that  the  fluid 
extract  is  of  such  a  strength  that  if  10  grms.  of  the  solid  extract  be 
dissolved  in  a  sufficient  quantity  of  the  menstruum  to  yield  IOO  cc. 
the  product  is  identical  in  strength  with  the  official  process  fluid 
extract.  As  the  solution  of  the  extract  has  been  adopted  for  tincture, 
why  not  adopt  same  for  fluid  extract  also  ?  or  still  better,  as  the  fluid 
extract  is  only  a  multiple  of  the  solid,  why  not  omit  the  former  ? 
The  official  Fluid  Extract  of  Phytolacca  is  made  from  the  poke 
root  and  not  from  phytolacca  fruit,  as  we  are  informed  on  p.  299. 
The  formula  for  Fluid  Extract  of  Wild  Cherry  shows  a  decided 
change  both  in  method  of  manipulation  and  in  alcoholic  strength  of 
the  menstruum. 
In  Fluid  Extract  of  Sanguinaria  the  use  of  acetic  acid  is  a  decided 
improvement  which  should  have  been  extended  also  to  the  Fluid 
Extract  of  Squill. 
[To  be  continued.] 
MACASSAR  OIL.- 
By  Robert  Glenk. 
The  true  macassar  oil,  prepared  from  the  seeds  of  Schleichera 
Trijuga,  Willd.,  one  of  the  East  Indian  Sapindacese,  has  a  great  reputa- 
tion in  its  native  country  as  a  stimulating  application  to  pro- 
mote the  growth  of  the  hair  and  also  as  a  remedy  in  skin  diseases, 
especially  eczema. 
