Tinctura Gentianae Composita (U. S. P.)—Compound Tincture of Gentian.
Related entry: Gentiana (U. S. P.)—Gentian
Preparation.—"Gentian, one hundred grammes (100 Gm.) [3 ozs. av., 231 grs.]; bitter orange peel, forty grammes (40 Gm.) [1 oz. av., 180 grs.]; cardamom, ten grammes (10 Gm.) [154 grs.]; alcohol, water, each, a sufficient quantity to make one thousand cubic centimeters (1000 Cc.) [33 fl℥, 391♏︎]. Mix the gentian, orange peel, and cardamom., and reduce the mixture to a moderately coarse (No. 40) powder. Mix alcohol and water in the proportion of six hundred cubic centimeters (600 Cc.) [20 fl℥, 138♏︎] of alcohol to four hundred cubic centimeters (400 Cc.) [13 fl℥, 252♏︎] of water. Having moistened the powder with one hundred cubic centimeters (100 Cc.) [3 fl℥, 183♏︎] of menstruum, macerate for 24 hours; then pack it in a cylindrical percolator, and gradually pour menstruum upon it, until one thousand cubic centimeters (1000 Cc.) [33 fl℥, 391♏︎] of tincture are obtained"—(U.S. P.). This produces a bitter, brown-yellow tincture having a pleasant aromatic odor.
Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage.—An aromatic, bitter, and stomachic; inferior, however, to the preparation of same name given below. Dose, 30 to 120 drops.
Related Tincture.—TINCTURA GENTIANAE COMPOSITA, Compound tincture of gentian. Take of gentian, colombo, swamp milkweed, rhubarb, prickly ash berries, sassafras, each, 1 ounce; good French brandy, 4 pints, or a sufficient quantity. Form into a tincture by maceration or percolation, as explained under Tincturae, and make 4 pints of tincture. This is a mild aperient, stimulant, and tonic, and is especially adapted to children with debilitated stomachs or disordered condition of the digestive organs, after the administration of anthelmintics for the removal of worms, and during convalescence from exhausting diseases, as summer complaint, diarrhoea, dysentery, fevers, etc. The dose is from 10 drops to 1 teaspoonful, 3 or 4 times a day, in sweetened water (J. King).
TINCTURA AMARA (N. F.), Bitter tincture, Stomachic tincture, Bitter stomachic drops, Stomach drops.—"Gentian, fifty grammes (50 Gm.) [1 oz. av., 334 grs.]; centaury, herb, fifty grammes (50 Gm.) [1 oz. av., 334 grs.]; bitter orange peel, thirty-five grammes (35 Gm.) [1 oz. av., 103 grs.]; orange berries, seventeen grammes (17 Gm.) [262 grs.]; zedoary, root, seventeen grammes (17 Gm.) [262 grs.]; alcohol, water, of each, a sufficient quantity to make one thousand cubic centimeters (1000 Cc.) [33 fl℥, 391♏︎]. Reduce the drugs to a moderately coarse (No. 40) powder, and percolate it, in the usual manner, with a mixture of 2 volumes of alcohol and 1 volume of water, until one thousand cubic centimeters (1000 Cc.) [33 fl℥, 391♏︎] of percolate are obtained. Note.—Centaury is the herb of Erythraea Centaurium, Persoon. Orange berries are the unripe fruit of Citrus vulgaris, Risso, collected while small. Zedoary is the rhizome of Curcuma Zedoaria, Roscoe. The product obtained by the above formula is practically identical with that which is official in the German Pharmacopoeia"—(Nat. Form.).
