Fluidextractum Senegae. U. S. Fluidextract of Senega.
Fldext. Seneg.
Related entries: Senega
Extrait liquide de Polygale de Virginie, Extrait liquide de Seneca, Fr.; Flüssiges Senegaextrakt, G.
"Senega, in No. 30 powder, one thousand grammes [or 35 ounces av., 120 grains]; Ammonia Water, Alcohol, Water, each, a sufficient quantity, to make one thousand mils [or 33 fluidounces, 6 ½ fluidrachms]. Mix two thousand mils [or 67 fluidounces, 301 minims] of alcohol with one thousand mils [or 33 fluidounces, 6 ½ fluidrachms] of water, and, having moistened the powder with sufficient of this mixture, pack it in a cylindrical percolator and add enough menstruum to saturate the powder and leave a stratum above it. When the liquid begins to drop from the percolator, close the lower orifice, and, having closely covered the percolator, macerate for forty-eight hours. Then allow the percolation to proceed slowly, gradually adding menstruum, composed of a mixture of two volumes of alcohol and one volume of water, until the drug is exhausted. Reserve the first eight hundred mils [or 27 fluidounces, 24 minims] of the percolate and evaporate the remainder to a soft extract; dissolve this in the reserved liquid and then gradually add ammonia water until the product is faintly alkaline and possesses a slight odor of ammonia. Finally add enough of the menstruum to make the Fluid-extract measure one thousand mils [or 33 fluid-ounces, 6 ½ fluidrachms]." U. S.
Formerly, Fluidextract of Senega was very frequently the cause of annoyance to the pharmacist through gelatinization. This was due to the presence of pectinous bodies in the root. The addition of an alkali to the menstruum effectually prevents this, and in this respect the present preparation is a great improvement over the 1890 fluidextract. We prefer, however, solution of sodium hydroxide, as the alkaline liquid, to ammonia water, as the latter is rarely uniform in quality as found in commerce. This fluidextract is a blackish-brown, moderately thin liquid. For other processes, see N. R., 1883, pp. 195, 196. The British Pharm. (1898) "Liquor Senegae Concentratus" was made half the strength of the U. S. fluidextract with a menstruum composed of 2 parts of 20 per cent. alcohol and 1 part of 45 per cent. alcohol.
Dose, five to twenty minims (0.3-1.3 mils).
Off. Prep.—Syrupus Scillae Compositus, U. S.; Syrupus Senegae, U. S.; Mistura Pectoralis, Stokes, N. F.; Syrupus Cimicifugae Compositus, N. F.
