Tinctura Cinchonae Ferrata.—Ferrated Tincture of Cinchona.

Botanical name: 

Related entry: Cinchona wossname
SYNONYM: Ferrated tincture of Peruvian bark.

Preparation.—Take of the compound tincture of Peruvian bark, 1 pint; hydroxide of iron, recently precipitated, ½ ounce; ammonio-citrate of iron, 256 grains. To the compound tincture add the hydroxide, and digest until all the cincho-tannin, whether pure, oxidized, or combined, is completely eliminated. Then filter, and wash the tannate and excess of oxide with boiling alcohol, to remove any trace of alkaloid which may have been precipitated with the tannin; this alcoholic solution may be evaporated to dryness, the product dissolved in a little water, acidulated with citric acid, and added to the filtered liquor along with the ammonio-citrate of iron (Samuel Simes).

Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage.—This forms an exceedingly agreeable and energetic invigorative, admirably adapted in the cases of weak and languid habits of children and females, where the body is in a pallid or flaccid state, and very susceptible of fatigue or morbid action. It does not solely depend on the quinine and iron it contains for its value as a curative agent; the grateful and by no means inefficient adjuvants, the orange peel, snakeroot, and other proximate principles of cinchona, independent of quinine, are by no means to be overlooked, and can not be replaced by salts of quinine and iron alone, however scientific their artificial combinations may appear. Each fluid ounce contains 16 grains of ammonio-citrate of iron. The dose is 1 or 2 fluid drachms, 3 or 4 times a day (Samuel Simes).


King's American Dispensatory, 1898, was written by Harvey Wickes Felter, M.D., and John Uri Lloyd, Phr. M., Ph. D.