PREPARATION  OF  SYRUP  OF  SENEGA. 
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pint ;  lastly  add  the  oil  of  bitter  almonds  and  agitate  until  it  is 
thoroughly  incorporated.  The  dose  may  be  from  gii  to  gss,  as 
the  physician  may  direct. 
These  experiments  further  show  that  the  pumpkin  seed  is  a 
valuable  remedy  if  administered  in  the  proper  manner,  and  as  it 
is  a  drug  that  can  be  easily  and  cheaply  obtained  of  good  quali- 
ty, which  is  not  the  case  with  many  other  remedies  of  its  class, 
it  cannot  be  too  highly  valued  as  a  therapeutic  agent. 
NOTE  ON  THE  PREPARATION  OF  SYRUP  OF  SENEGA. 
To  the  Editor  of,  the  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy  : 
Bear  Sir, — Many  readers  of  your  extensively  circulated  jour- 
nal have  no  doubt  never  been  fully  satisfied  with  "  Syrupus 
Senega,"  as  made  according  to  our  Pharmacopoeia  ;  the  product, 
though  therapeutically  efficient,  is  an  eyesore  to  all  who  take 
pride  in  elegant  preparations. 
The  subject  may  therefore  be  worth  a  short  notice,  and  I 
would  therefore  desire  to  lay  before  your  readers  a  process  I 
have  followed  for  some  time  with  the  best  results. 
The  medicinal  virtues  of  senega  reside  chiefly  in  a  sapona- 
ceous principle, — polygalic  acid, —soluble  in  water,  cold  or  hot, 
less  so  in  alcohol,  which  dissolves  it  vfhen  hot,  but  deposits  it 
upon  cooling.  With  polygalic  acid  are  associated  gum,  resin, 
earthy  salts,  and  other  inert  matter. 
Diluted  alcohol  has  been  employed  as  a  menstruum  to  prevent 
the  solution  of  these  useless  substances,  which  would  to  some  ex- 
tent be  taken  up  by  water.  Alcohol,  on  the  other  hand,  ex- 
tracts the  resin,  which,  when  the  tincture  is  evaporated,  is  pre- 
cipitated, and  the  remaining  aqueous  solution  cannot  be  made 
perfectly  clear  by  any  amount  of  filtration. 
One  of  your  correspondents  suggested  a  process,  which  con- 
sisted principally  of  exhausting  the  drug  with  water,  evaporating 
the  infusion  to  a  small  bulk,  precipitating  gum,  etc.,  by  alcohol, 
again  evaporating  and  filtering  if  necessary,  adding  sufficient 
water,  and  dissolving  the  sugar.  This  is  a  complicated  process, 
subjects  the  solution  to  the  long  continued  action  of  heat,  ren- 
ders several  filtrations  necessary  (and  with  senega  these  are  very 
