Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Oct.,  1880. 
Glycerole  of  Cinchona. 
483 
his  solutions  and  dilute  phosphoric  acid  he  seems  to  have  overlooked 
the  fact  that  a  minim  of  the  syrupy  acid  weighs  much  more  than  a 
.grain,  its  specific  gravity  being  about  1700;  and  taking  one  ounce  of 
glacial  acid  in  12J  fluidounces  of  diluted  acid  as  the  basis  of  calcula- 
tion, it  w^ill  be  found  that  his  preparations  really  contain  rather  more 
free  phosphoric  acid  than  similar  volumes  of  the  officinal  dilute  acid, 
though  the  difference  will  be  probably  of  no  importance  in  practice. 
GLYCEROLE  OF  CINCHONA. 
By  Fred.  Loos.,  Jr.,  Ph.g. 
From  an  Inaugural  Essay. 
Although  there  are  numerous  liquid  preparations  of  the  cinchona 
barks  there  appear  to  be  none  which,  for  any  length  of  time,  remain 
iperfect  and  reliable;  they  become  more  or  less  turbid,  and  in  most 
cases  a  precipitate  forms. 
As  this  deposit  is  generally  that  extractive  portion  of  the  bark  which 
contains  a  large  percentage  of  its  alkaloids,  and  therefore  the  part 
which  is  most  sought  after  in  medicine,  it  is  evident  that  a  large  pro- 
'.portion  of  its  active  qualities  are  lost,  and  what  the  physician  supposes 
is  doing  his  patient  the  most  good  is  ornamenting  the  sides  of  the 
■''shop  bottle"  in  some  modern  ''palace  of  pharmacy."  It  seems  that 
ithe  solvents  used  in  making  the  officinal  preparations  of  the  cinchona 
barks  have  not  the  power  to  hold  in  solution  the  above-mentioned 
jjrinciple,  and  on  that  account  in  a  short  time  the  liquids  lose  their 
transparency,  and  become  cloudy. 
Glycerin  is  not  only  an  excellent  solvent  and  preservative,  but  its 
blandhes-s  and  agreeable  taste  render  it  acceptable  in  many  cases  where 
an  alcoholic  or  vinous  preparation  is  objectionable.  By  using  glycerin 
I  find  that  a  beautiful  preparation  of  cinchona  can  be  made,  which 
effectually  holds  in  solution  the  extractive  portion  of  the  bark,  and  its 
clearness  or  quality  is  not  affected  in  the  least  by  age.  In  this  respect 
I  think  it  surpasses  the  present  Extractum  Cinchonae  Fluidum  of  the 
U.  S.  P.,  for  in  it  there  is  invariably  a  very  heavy  deposit.  Therefore, 
this  fluid  extract,  which  should  and  could  be  a  very  good  one,  has 
fallen  almost  entirely  out  of  use. 
The  same  complaint  can  be  made  of  tinctura  cinchonae  and  tinctura 
vcinchonae  comp.,  so  much  used  at  present  and  prescribed  by  physicians 
^everywhere. 
