THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY. 
AUGUST,  1879. 
FLUID  EXTRACT  AND  SYRUP  OF  IPECACUANHA. 
By  Alonzo  Robbins. 
There  has  been  a  general  complaint  of  the  present  officinal  fluid 
extract  of  ipecacuanha,  principally  that  the  syrup  made  by  mixing  it 
with  simple  syrup  is  not  clear,  and  separates  a  flocculent  precipitate  on 
standing.  For  a  number  of  years  I  have  used  a  formula  for  the  syrup 
similar  to  the  one  given  in  this  paper,  and  it  has  always  yielded  a  trans- 
parent preparation  which  has  been  kept  unchanged  for  three  or  four 
years. 
In  the  Proceedings  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association  for 
1877,  page  411,  Mr.  J.  U.  Lloyd  suggested  a  formula  for  fluid  extract, 
based  on  the  formula  of  the  U.  S.  Pharmacopoeia  of  i860.  This  sug- 
gestion I  have  followed  in  the  first  formula  given  in  this  paper,  the 
ipecacuanha  used  in  all  these  experiments  was  in  No.  80  powder,  but  I 
think  that  the  fine  powdered  drug  of  the  market  would  have  answered 
equally  well ;  parts  by  weight  were  used  throughout  : 
Take  of  Ipecacuanha,  in  powder  No.  80,  100  parts 
Acetic  acid,            .           .  6  " 
Alcohol,  .  .    s.  g.  '822 
Water,        ....  each  a  sufficient  quantity 
Moisten  the  ipecacuanha  with  30  parts  of  alcohol  and  pack  it  firmly 
in  a  cylindrical  percolator,  pour  alcohol  upon  it  and  allow  the  percola- 
tion to  proceed  slowly  until  the  ipecacuanha  is  exhausted.  To  the 
percolate  add  the  acetic  acid  and  50  parts  of  water,  evaporate  by 
means  of  a  water-bath  until  it  is  reduced  to  50  parts  ;  when  cold  add 
50  parts  of  water,  let  stand  twelve  hours  and  filter,  evaporate  the 
filtrate  to  50  parts  and  add  50  parts  of  alcohol.  The  specific  gravity 
of  this  fluid  extract  is  -944  at  70°F.,  and  it  contains  11  per  cent,  of 
dry  extract.    When  this  fluid  extract  is  mixed  with  simple  syrup  it 
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