Am.  Jour.  Pham3.| 
January,  1903.  J 
Tinctures  of  Potent  Remedies. 
25 
880  grammes,  the  solvent  in  this  case  being  95  per  cent,  alcohol, 
the  same  as  that  directed  by  the  U.S. P. 
Tincture  of  Ipecac. — This  would  be  a  new  preparation  to  American 
physicians  and  one  that  would  probably  meet  with  considerable 
opposition.  It  was  apparently  introduced  into  the  Proceedings  of 
the  International  Conference  with  the  object  of  having  a  preparation 
from  which  a  uniform  syrup  of  ipecac  might  be  made.  This  latter, 
however,  is  so  much  weaker  than  our  own  syrup,  that  it  is  an  open 
question  whether  or  not  it  could  possibly  come  under  the  appella- 
tion of  a  potent  remedy.  One  other  feature  of  this  proposed 
tincture  of  ipecac  is  that  it  is  to  be  made  from  the  bark  of  the  root 
of  Rio  ipecac,  discarding  the  ligneous  cord  entirely.  This  latter 
direction,  it  will  probably  be  found,  will  not  be  readily  complied 
with,  as  there  is  considerable  difficulty  in  separating  the  fragments 
of  wood  from  the  bark,  even  when  the  comminution  is  done  in  an 
iron  mortar.  To  try  this  more  fully,  120  grammes  of  ipecac  root 
were  comminuted  in  an  iron  mortar  until  90  grammes  of  a  mod- 
erately fine  powder  had  been  obtained.  The  residue,  weighing  nearly 
30  grammes,  still  contained  an  appreciable  quantity  of  the  bark  of 
the  root,  but  the  ligneous  cord  had  been  so  broken  that  any  further 
attempt  at  separating  the  bark  would  certainly  have  introduced  a 
very  considerable  quantity  of  the  woody  fibre.  It  will  readily  be 
seen  how  extremely  impracticable  it  would  be  to  attempt  to  sepa- 
rate the  bark  from  the  wood  in  cases  where  the  powdering  is  done  by 
steam-driven  machinery.  In  physical  properties  the  resulting  tinc- 
ture did  not  differ  materially  from  one  made  directly  from  powdered 
ipecac,  as  usually  prepared  for  percolation.  The  powdered  root  lost 
4  per  cent,  of  its  weight  on  drying,  the  total  loss  of  100  grammes 
was  28  grammes  or  a  net  loss,  allowing  for  the  contained  water,  of 
24  grammes.  One  thousand  grammes  of  the  resulting  tincture 
measured  1,108  c.c,  while  1  litre,  at  25 0  C,  weighed  900  grammes. 
Tincture  of  Lobelia. — This  is  another  preparation  that  differs  little 
in  general  properties  from  the  official  U.S.P.  preparation.  There  is 
of  course  a  reduction  of  50  per  cent,  in  the  drug  content,  and  an 
increase  in  the  strength  of  the  menstruum,  the  present  U.S.P. 
directing  a  50  per  cent,  alcohol  to  exhaust  the  drug,  while  the 
international  standard  would  require  a  70  per  cent,  alcohol.  Lobelia 
lost  4  per  cent,  of  its^weight  on  drying,  while  100  grammes  of  the 
air-dry  drug  gave  a  gross  loss  of  28  6  or  a  net  loss  of  24-6  grammes 
