SYRUP OP WILD CHERRY BARK, ETC. 
27 
ART. III.-REMARKS ON SYRUP OF WILD CHERRY BARK, 
AND ON SYRUP OF VALERIAN. By W. Procter, Jr. and 
J. C. TURNPENNV. 
Read at the Pharmaceutical Meeting of the College, Feb. 1842. 
The bark of the Prunus Virginiana, as an article of our 
Materia Medica, is daily becoming more in use, and its ad- 
mitted value as a remedial agent, renders any suggestions 
having a pharmaceutical bearing upon it, of some importance. 
The existence of amygdalin in this bark, and also of a sub- 
stance which reacts with it like emulsin in the bitter almond, 
so as to generate a volatile oil and hydrocyanic acid, has been 
elsewhere shown ;* hence, in all the aqueous preparations of 
the bark, hydrocyanic and volatile oil are present, and the 
wisdom of employing cold water as a menstruum, as direct- 
ed by the U. S. Pharmacopoeia, is apparent. 
The long time required to make the infusion by macera- 
tion in the ordinary way, gives additional advantage to a pre- 
paration which, while it possesses all the virtues of the other, 
as being made without heat, contains them in a more concen- 
trated form, and is capable of preservation for a long time. 
With these preliminary remarks, we will state that the fol- 
lowing formula yields a preparation of good quality, contain- 
ing all the activity that the quantity of menstruum appears 
capable of extracting. 
Take of Wild Chery bark, in powder, §iv. 
Water, gxii. 
Sugar, in coarse powder, gxxiv. 
Macerate the bark in the water for forty eight hours ; put 
the mixture into a displacement apparatus ; return the fluid 
that passes several times, until it becomes transparent, and 
then add sufficient water to displace twelve fluid ounces of in- 
* American Journal of Pharmacy, Vol. x. page 197. 
