426 
The  Assay  of  Aconite. 
5  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\      June,  1921. 
On  June  21st,  after  the  drug  had  macerated  for  48  hours,  the 
twenty-first  sample  was  collected.  The  analysis  of  this  showed  the 
drug  to  be  pharmaceutically  exhausted. 
The  finished  fluidextract  yielded  the  following  data:  Alcohol, 
37  per  cent.;  extract,  32.54  Gm.  per  100  ml.;  S.  G.  1.0371. 
SUMMARY. 
1.  The  extraction  of  the  root  of  Phytolacca  decandra  proceeds 
regularly  with  diminishing  velocity. 
2.  The  rate  of  extraction  is  proportional  to  the  total  extract,  in- 
versely proportional  to  the  residual  extractive,  the  time,  and  an  un- 
known factor  or  combination  of  factors.  On  account  of  these 
unknown  factors  a  number  characteristic  of  the  extractibility  of  the 
drug  cannot  be  assigned  it. 
3.  It  is  probable  that  the  unknown  factors  depend  upon  a  change 
in  the  composition  of  the  extract  and  a  rise  in  the  alcoholic  content 
of  the  percolate. 
4.  The  first  fifteen  gallons  of  percolate  contained  97  per  cent, 
of  the  total  matter  extracted. 
5.  It  is  shown  that  the  alcoholic  content  of  the  percolate  in- 
creases as  the  percolation  proceeds.  This  has  not  hitherto  been 
demonstrated. 
THE  ASSAY  OF  ACONITE. 
By  Dr.  A.  R.  L.  Don  me, 
Chairman,  Committee  on  Aconite  of  Scientific  Section  of  American 
Drug  Manufacturers'  Association. 
The  work  covered  by  this  paper  represents  what  has  been  done 
during  the  past  three  years  by  the  Scientific  Section  of  the  American 
Drug  Manufacturers'  Association,  who  have  felt  that  its  results 
should  be  made  known  to  the  medical  and  pharmaceutical  professions 
generally. 
The  primary  problem  was  to  attempt  to  decide  whether  the 
chemical  assay  of  aconite  and  its  preparations  had  any  real  value, 
and  the  resultant  problem  was  to  determine  if  the  physiological  assay 
was  accurate  and  trustworthy.  The  present  official  assay  process 
U.  S.  P.  IX  Revision  is  a  chemical  one  with  an  alternative  physio- 
logical assay,  but  the  chemical  assay  is  the  standard.  In  the  VIII 
Revision  there  was  only  a  chemical  assay  as  the  official  process.  In 
