Extractum Mezerei Fluidum (U. S. P.)—Fluid Extract of Mezereum.
Related entry: Mezereum (U. S. P.)—Mezereum
Preparation.—"Mezereum, in No. 30 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 four hundred cubic centimeters (400 Cc.) [13 fl℥, 252♏︎] 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 mezereum is exhausted. Reserve the first nine hundred cubic centimeters (900 Cc.) [30 fl℥, 208♏︎] of the percolate. Distill off the alcohol from the remainder by means of a water-bath, and evaporate the residue, at a temperature not exceeding 50° C. (122° F.), 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 and Medical Uses.—This is an acrid green liquid, used chiefly to maintain a discharge from blistered parts. It is used in the preparation of Linimentum Sinapis Compositum. The British Pharmacopoeia directs an ethereal extract of mezereum used in the compound liniment of mustard (see below). It is scarcely used at all in America.
Related Preparations.—EXTRACTUM MEZEREI AETHEREUM (Br.), Ethereal extract of mezereum.—This is prepared essentially as follows: Prepare a strong alcoholic tincture of mezereum bark, and distill until a mass of the consistence of a soft extract is left behind; agitate with ether, decant the ethereal solution, distill off the ether, and convert the residue into a soft extract of the consistence of honey.
EXTRACTUM MEZEREI FLUIDUM (N. F., U. S. P., 1880), Fluid extract of mezereum.—Formulary number, 170: "From the bark of Daphne Mezereum, Linné, and of other species of Daphne (Mezereum). Process A (see F. 135). No. 30 powder. Menstruum: Alcohol"—(Nat. Form.).
