THE 
AMERICAN JOURNAL 
O F 
PHARMACY. 
JANUARY, 1843. 
ART. XXXVIII.— OBSERVATIONS ON EXTRACT OF RHA- 
TANY. By William Procter, Jr. 
Read at the Pharmaceutical Meeting held Nov. 7th, 1842. 
RhatAny and its preparations enjoy a reputation among 
the medical practitioners of this country deservedly high, 
and have in some parts almost superseded kino and catechu. 
Of the preparations of rhatany, the extract is perhaps the 
most generally employed, with the exception of the tincture, 
and is the most liable to be found of inferior quality. This 
depends as well on the menstruum employed, and its tempera- 
ture, as on imperfect manipulation. 
The design of this paper is to exhibit the relations which 
the chemical constitution of rhatany has with its pharmaceu- 
tical preparations, and particularly with its extract; and to 
show the importance of a knowledge of these relations to the 
pharmaceutist. 
According to the experiments of Vogel, Gmelin, Peschier 
and Trommsdorf, the root of Krameria triandra contains 
tannin, extractive, insoluble apotheme, gum, fecula, kra- 
meric acid, etc.* 
Extract of rhatany has been prepared by five different me- 
thods or processes, yielding products varying much in com- 
* Soubeiran's Traite de Pharmacie. 
vol. vm. — No. iv. 34 
