34 
Tincture  of  Nux  Vomica. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Jan.,  1884. 
ments  is  that  proof  spirit  should  be  substituted  for  rectified  spirit  in 
the  preparation  of  tincture  of  nux  vomica.  But  there  is  one  strong 
reason  for  suggesting  the  use  of  100  volumes  of  rectified  spirit  mixed 
with  25  volumes  of  water.  For  although  the  extractive  power  of  these 
two  spirits  may  be  said  to  be  the  same,  the  use  of  the  stronger  spirit 
has  this  advantage  over  proof  spirit,  that  it  percolates  very  much  more 
freely,  while,  owing  to  the  larger  proportion  of  water  in  the  proof 
spirit,  the  percolation  occupies  a  much  longer  time  and  the  percolator 
is  very  apt  to  clog. 
Bother  (see  "Amer.  Jour.  Pharm./'  lv.,  1  ;  "  Pharm.  Jour."  [3], 
xiii.,  643)  has  proposed  the  use  of  sodium  chloride  in  the  preparation 
of  tincture  of  nux  vomica,  claiming  that  more  complete  exhaustion 
is  by  this  means  obtained ;  but  this  statement  is  not  supported  by 
any  alkaloidal  determinations.  We  have  therefore  experimentally 
studied  the  influence  of  sodium  chloride  upon  the  extraction  of  nux 
vomica  by  alcohol.  Rother  recommends  the  use  of  spirit  the  strength 
of  which  is  represented  by  equal  volumes  of  rectified  spirit  and  water ; 
but  in  view  of  the  results  obtained  above,  we  have  employed  100 
volumes  of  rectified  spirit  to  25  volumes  of  water. 
Five  grams  of  nux  vomica  were  macerated  for  three  days  with 
50  cc.  of  spirit  containing  100  volumes  of  rectified  spirit  and  25 
volumes  of  water,  in  which  was  dissolved  0'7  gram  of  sodium  chloride. 
Three  experiments  were  made.  In  the  first  experiment  the  maceration 
was  continued  for  two  days ;  in  the  second  and  third  experiments  for 
three  days.    The  results  are  recorded  in  Table  II. 
TABLE  II. 
Proportion  of  rectified 
spirit  to  water. 
(By  volume.) 
Percentage  of  Na  CI 
dissolved  in  spirit. 
Amount  of  total  alka- 
loid in  40  cc.  of 
tincture. 
Percentage  of  alka- 
loid extracted  from 
the  nux  vomica. 
100  :  25 
1-5 
0-087 
2-18 
100  :  25 
1-5 
0. 102 
2-55 
100  :  25 
1-5 
o-ioo 
2-50 
As  maceration  is  but  an  imperfect  process  of  exhaustion,  two  experi- 
ments were  made  by  percolation,  spirit  of  the  above  strength  being 
employed  in  one  experiment  and  the  same  spirit  containing  1*5  per  cent, 
of  sodium  chloride  in  the  other.  Five  grams  of  the  finely  powdered 
seeds  being  percolated  with  50  cubic  centimeters  of  the  spirit.  The  results 
are  shown  in  Table  III. 
