Tinctura Sanguinariae. U. S. Tincture of Sanguinaria. Tr. Sanguin. [Tincture of Blood Root]
Related entries: Sanguinaria
Teinture (alcoole) de Sanguinaire, Fr.; Blutwurzeltinktur, G.
"Sanguinaria, in No. 60 powder, one hundred grammes [or 3 ounces av., 231 grains]; Hydrochloric Acid, ten mils [or 162 minims]; Alcohol, Water, each, a sufficient quantity, to make one thousand mils [or 33 fluidounces,6 ½ fluidrachms]. Mix six hundred mils [or 20 fluidounces, 138 minims] of alcohol with four hundred mils [or 13 fluidounces, 252 minims] of water. Moisten the drug with a mixture of the hydrochloric acid and thirty mils [or 1 fluid-ounce, 7 minims] of this menstruum, transfer it to a percolator, and, without pressing the powder, allow it to stand, well covered, for six hours; then pack it firmly and pour on 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 twenty-four hours. Then allow the percolation to proceed slowly, pouring on sufficient menstruum made of alcohol and water, in the same proportion as before, to make one thousand mils [or 33 fluidounces, 6 ½ fluidrachms] of Tincture." U. S.
This tincture was reduced from 15 Gm. (U. S. P, 1890) to 10 Gm. of drug, per 100 mils, in the U. S. P. VIII and IX.
A precipitate will generally be found deposited upon the sides and bottoms of bottles containing this tincture. W. J. McConn (A. J. P., 1884, p. 505) recommended the addition of an alkaline citrate, preferably potassium citrate, as a preventive. He found sanguinarine in the precipitate. See also Homerberg and Beringer (A. J. P., 1913, lxxxv, p. 394). The official menstruum now contains hydrochloric acid, with a view of preventing precipitation. This tincture is emetic in the dose of from three to four fluidrachms (11.25-15 mils); but it is rather intended to act as an expectorant or an alterative, for which purpose from fifteen to sixty minims (0.9-3.75 mils) may be given.
