THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY. 
MARCH,  1875. 
MIXTURA  GLYCYRRHIZ^  COMPOSITA,  AND  PURIFIED 
EXTRACT  OF  LICORICE 
BY   HANS  M.  WILDER. 
[Read  at  the  Pharmaceutical  Meetings  February  x6th.) 
The  bent  of  modern  pharmacy  being  towards  elegance,  we  corres- 
pondingly find,  by  comparing  magistral  and  official  formulae  of  old  with 
those  now  in  use,  a  desire  to  make  preparations  not  only  agreeable  to 
the  sense  of  smell  and  to  the  palate,  but  also  pleasing  to  the  eye,  when- 
ever it  has  been  possible  to  do  so  without  detriment  to  their  medicinal 
activity.  Of  official  preparations  there  are  at  least  two  *  which  had 
better  be  left  inelegant,  as  they  were  formerly — syrups  of  tolu  and  of 
ginger.  As  now  prepared  they  look  very  nice,  but  are  of  very  little 
value  except  as  flavoring  syrups,  the  medicinally  active  resins  having 
been  removed  ;  a  remark,  by  the  way,  made  already  in  i860  (vol. 
xxxii,  p.  113)  by  the  present  editor. 
The  old,  well-known  "  Brown  Mixture  "  forms  a  solitary  excep- 
tion, looking  to-day  just  as  uninviting  as  when  first  made  (1815).  The 
late  Aug.  Duhamel  (1840,  vol.  xi,  p.  284),  after  giving  the  original 
formula  (which  does  not  contain  sweet  spirits  of  nitre),  recommends  to 
prepare  it  by  precolation  from  licorice-root,  with  the  addition  of  a 
small  quantity  of  powdered  extract,  for  the  sake  of  the  color. 
Instead  of  percolation,  I  propose  simply  to  substitute  the  purified  ex- 
tract of  licorice  of  the  German  Pharmacopoeia  (extractum  glycyrrhizae 
depuratum)  for  the  powdered  crude  extract,  and  to  use  gum  arabic  in 
lumps  instead  of  the  powder.  The  resulting  Brown  Mixture  will  be 
found  to  be  of  a  pleasing  dark  brown  color,  by  no  means  limpid,  but 
without  a  sediment. 
*  I  think  that  some  of  the  fluid  extracts  would  be  more  reliable  if  less  attention 
were  paid  to  their  appearance 
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