78 
Tincture  of  Kino. 
Am  Jour.  Phann. 
Feb.,  1880. 
TINCTURE  OF  KINO. 
By  G.  W.  Kennedy,  Ph.G. 
In  submitting  the  results  of  numerous  experiments  I  am  highly  grati- 
iied  to  state  that  a  tincture  can  be  made  which  will  not  gelatinize,  and 
hope  that  those  pharmacists,  who  have  occasionally  been  annoyed  by 
the  change  alluded  to,  will  try  the  modified  process,  and  have  no  cause 
in  the  future  to  complain. 
There  is  scarcely  a  pharmacist,  in  whose  locality  the  tincture  is  used, 
that  has  not  been  annoyed  with  several  of  the  astringent  tinctures,  and 
more  particularly  with  the  tincture  of  kino.  The  process  of  the  pres- 
ent Pharmacopoeia  is  a  decided  improvement  over  that  of  i860;  but 
gelatinization  occurs  sometimes  shortly  after  preparing  the  tincture, 
and  its  instability  is  the  reason  why  some  physicians  have  abandoned  its 
use. 
Several  remedies  have  been  proposed  from  time  to  time  to  prevent 
gelatinization  and  consequent  loss  of  astringency.  Against  one  of 
these,  glycerin,  I  have  very  little  to  say,  since  a  tincture,  when  made 
with  a  menstruum  consisting  of  2  parts  water,  i  part  alcohol  and  i 
part  glycerin,  kept  apparently  unchanged  until  the  beginning  of  the 
ninth  month,  when  all  at  once,  as  it  were,  it  became  a  semi-solid  mass. 
Alkalies  have  been  recommended,  but  they  change  the  tannin  and 
destroy  the  astringency,  and  a  similiar  effect  has  carbonate  of  magne- 
sium. Half  a  pint  of  tincture  was  carefully  prepared  according  to  the 
method  recommended  in  "  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy,"  1873, 
page  260,  and  had  but  a  slight  astringent  taste,  and  was  scarcely  darkened 
in  color  on  the  addition  of  salts  of  iron. 
It  is  true  that  a  stronger  alcoholic  menstruum,  as  recommended 
by  some  writers,  exhausts  kino  more  rapidly  and  satisfactorily 
than  perhaps  any  other  solvent,  and  the  tincture,  as  thus  prepared,  so 
long  as  the  alcoholic  strength  is  preserved,  I  believe  will  not  gelatinize, 
but  if  the  preparation  is  insecurely  kept  evaporation  of  the  alcohol 
takes  place  and  the  tincture  gelatinizes.  It  must  also  be  remembered 
that  medicinally  it  is  not  always  desirable  to  administer  a  preparation 
containing  so  much  alcohol. 
The  formula  which  I  recommend  is  not  altogether  original  with  me, 
similar  ones  being  in  use  in  Philadelphia  and  perhaps  elsewhere.  In 
my  hands  it  has  given  perfect  satisfaction  in  preserving  the  tincture. 
