Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
May,  1909. 
Tincture  of  Strophanthus. 
21  T 
339  hours  of  maceration  in  about  47  days;  reserved  in  two  equal 
portions. 
Tincture  No.  3  was  made  with  35  hours  of  percolation  and  275 
hours  of  maceration  in  about  12  days. 
Tincture  No.  4  was  made  with  164  hours  of  continuous  percola- 
tion, after  the  48  hours  of  maceration  as  directed  by  the  Pharma- 
copoeia.   The  percolate  was  reserved  in  six  portions. 
Tincture  No.  5  was  made  with  169  hours  of  percolation  and  56 
hours  of  maceration  in  about  9  days.  The  percolate  was  reserved 
in  ten  portions  of  100  c.c.  each. 
One  hundred  grammes  of  the  powdered  seed  were  thoroughly 
exhausted  with  petroleum  ether  in  a  Soxhlet  extractor.  Twenty- 
eight  grammes  of  fixed  oil  were  thus  obtained,  and  the  marc  after 
drying  weighed  68  grammes,  the  loss  in  moisture  being  four 
grammes. 
The  fat-free  powder  was  divided  into  two  parts  of  34  grammes 
each  representing  50  grammes  of  seed,  and  percolated  as  follows : 
Tincture  No.  6.  The  34  grammes  of  fat-free  powder  were 
moistened  and  macerated  for  48  hours,  as  directed  by  the  Pharma- 
copoeia, using  about  65  per  cent,  alcohol  as  menstruum.  Five 
hundred  cubic  centimetres  were  obtained  after  9.5  hours  of  perco- 
lation, interrupted  once  by  22  hours  of  maceration. 
Tincture  No.  7.  The  34  grammes  of  fat-free  powder  were 
moistened  and  macerated  for  48  hours,  using  a  menstruum  of  about 
25  per  cent,  alcohol.'  Five  hundred  cubic  centimetres  were  obtained 
after  10  hours  of  percolation,  interrupted  once  by  22  hours  of 
maceration. 
Owing  to  the  want  of  a  practical  method  of  quantitative  chem- 
ical analysis  for  strophanthin,  these  tinctures  were  tested  by  sub- 
cutaneous injection  into  cats.  It  has  been  shown  in  this  laboratory 
that  strophanthin  can  be  quantitatively  determined  fairly  accurately 
by  defining  the  minimal  lethal  dose  thus  injected.  This  is  about 
two-sevenths  of  a  milligramme  injected  subcutaneously  per  kilo  of 
cat  for  the  commercial  strophanthin  of  Merck  and  of  Boehringer  and 
Sons,  which  is  the  official  strophanthin. 
One  hundred  grammes  of  the  seed  were  percolated  until  ex- 
hausted, and  the  tincture  thus  obtained  tested  on  cats  showed  that 
one  gramme  of  the  seed  would  suffice  to  kill  350  kilos  of  cat,  and 
therefore  contained  about  100  milligrammes  of  commercial  stro- 
phanthin. At  least,  this  seed  may  be  safely  stated  to  contain  the 
toxic  equivalent  of  about  10  per  cent,  of  commercial  strophanthin. 
