Tinctura Colchici Seminis. U. S. (Br.) Tincture of Colchicum Seed. Tr. Colch. Sem. [Colchici Tinctura P. I.]
Related entries: Colchicum
"One hundred mils of Tincture of Colchicum Seed yields not less than 0.036 Gm. nor more than 0.044 Gm. of colchicine." U. S.
Tinctura Colchici, Br.; Tincture of Colchicum; Tinctura Colchici, U. S. 1890; Teinture (alcoole) de semenae de Colchique, Fr. Cod.: Tinctura Colchici, P. G.; Zeitlosentinktur, G.; Tintura alcoholica de colquico, Sp.
"Colchicum Seed, in No. 50 powder, one hundred grammes [or 3 ounces av., 231 grains], to make about one thousand mils [or 33 fluid-ounces, 6½ fluidrachms]. Prepare a Tincture by Type Process P, as modified for assayed tinctures, using a mixture of three volumes of alcohol and two volumes of water as the menstruum and adjusting the volume of the finished Tincture so that each one hundred mils contains 0.04 Gm. of colchicine." U. S.
"Colchicum Seeds, in No. 30 powder, 100 grammes; Alcohol (70 per cent.), sufficient to produce 1000 millilitres. Moisten the powder with fifty millilitres of the Alcohol, and complete the percolation process. This Tincture is of approximately the same strength as the Tinctura Colchici of the International Agreement, and is of one-half the strength of the corresponding preparation of the British Pharmacopoeia, 1898." Br.
The strength of this tincture was lowered to 10 Gm. per 100 mils in the U. S. P. VIII and IX to comply with the rule adopted for potent tinctures. An assay process was also appended.
It was at one time supposed that the tincture was quite as effective made from the unbruised as from the bruised seeds, but the opinion has been shown to be erroneous. (A. J. P., xxvi, 120.) See also a paper by N. Rosenwasser, Ibid., 1877, 436. Subsequently L. I. Morris showed that if the whole seeds were digested with hot diluted alcohol they could be perfectly exhausted. (A. J. P., 1881, p. 6.) Maisch recommended, as a convenient method of comminuting the seeds, to macerate them for two or three days in a portion of the menstruum, then to remove them and bruise them in a clean iron mortar, taking care that none of the menstruum or of the seeds should be wasted. (A. J. P., xxviii, 514.)
This tincture possesses the properties of colchicum, and may be given whenever that medicine is indicated, but the fluidextract, containing less alcohol, is generally preferred.
Dose, from fifteen to thirty minims (0.9-1.8 mils), to be repeated with caution.
