Extractum Cimicifugae Fluidum (U. S. P.)—Fluid Extract of Cimicifuga.
Related entry: Cimicifuga (U. S. P.)—Cimicifuga
Preparation.—"Cimicifuga, in No. 60 powder, one thousand grammes (1000 Gm.) [2 lbs. av., 3 ozs., 120 grs.]; alcohol, a sufficient quantity to make one thousand cubic centimeters (1000 Cc.) [33 fl℥, 391♏︎]. Moisten the powder with two hundred and fifty cubic centimeters (250 Cc.) [8 fl℥, 218♏︎] of alcohol, and pack it firmly in a cylindrical percolator; then add enough alcohol 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 48 hours. Then allow the percolation to proceed, gradually adding alcohol, until the cimicifuga is exhausted. Reserve the first nine hundred cubic centimeters (900 Cc.) [30 fl℥, 208♏︎] of the percolate, and evaporate the remainder to a soft extract; dissolve this in the reserved portion, and add enough alcohol to make the fluid extract measure one thousand cubic centimeters (1000 Cc.) [33 fl℥, 391♏︎]"—(U. S. P.).
Description, Medical Uses, and Dosage.—This preparation has a dark, reddish-brown color like laudanum, is transparent, and possesses the bitter, disagreeable taste of the root in a marked degree. Its flavor may be improved by the addition of white sugar, and a small portion of some aromatic essence at the time of taking it. Fluid extract of black cohosh possesses tonic, narcotic, antispasmodic, alterative, and emmenagogue properties. It may be used with advantage in rheumatism, neuralgia, scrofula, syphilis, amenorrhoea, dysmenorrhoea, chorea, and all diseases in which the root is indicated. The dose is from 10 to 60 minims.
