Tinctura Opii Camphorata (U. S. P.)—Camphorated Tincture of Opium.
Related entries: Opium (U. S. P.)—Opium - Tincture of Opium - Tincture of Deodorized Opium - Compound Mixture of Bloodroot
SYNONYMS: Paregoric, Elixir paregoricum, Paregoric elixir.
Preparation.—"Powdered opium, four grammes (4 Gm.) [62 grs.]; benzoic acid, four grammes (4 Gm.) [62 grs.]; camphor, four grammes (4 Gm.) [62 grs.]; oil of anise, four cubic centimeters (4 Cc.) [65♏︎]; glycerin, forty cubic centimeters (40 Cc.) [1 fl℥, 169♏︎]; diluted alcohol, a sufficient quantity to make one thousand cubic centimeters (1000 Cc.) [33 fl℥, 391♏︎]. Add nine hundred cubic centimeters (900 Cc.) [30 fl℥, 208♏︎] of diluted alcohol to the other ingredients, contained in a suitable vessel, and macerate for 3 days, shaking frequently; then filter through paper, in a well-covered funnel, and pass enough diluted alcohol through the filter to make the product measure one thousand cubic centimeters (1000 Cc.) [33 fl℥, 391♏︎]"—(U. S. P.). This tincture has a brown-yellow color, a sweetish and somewhat bitter, sharply aromatic taste, and an odor resembling that of camphor and anise combined. In reaction it is acid, and, when added to water, renders the latter milky. It contains, in every 263 minims, 1 grain of opium. True benzoic acid should be preferred to that made from the urine of herbivorous animals.
Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage.—This is a very valuable and useful opiate, which is efficient in allaying troublesome cough, nausea, whooping-cough, slight gastric and intestinal pains; to cause sleep, and palliate diarrhoea. The dose for an adult is 1 to 2 fluid drachms; for an infant, 5 to 10 or 20 drops.
Related Preparations.—The liquids known by the names of Godfrey's Cordial, and Bateman's Drops, two very dangerous articles in the hands of nurses and many non-professional persons, are generally prepared as follows:
GODFREY'S CORDIAL.—Dissolve carbonate of potassium, 6 drachms, in water, 6 ½ pints; add sugar-house molasses, 4 pints, and gently heat them to form a solution, removing any scum which floats upon the surface. Remove from the fire and add laudanum, 6 fluid ounces; alcohol, 8 fluid ounces, in which has been dissolved 1 fluid drachm of oil of sassafras. A fluid drachm of this cordial is equivalent to somewhat more than ¼ grain of opium.
BATEMAN'S PECTORAL DROPS.—Take powdered opium, powdered catechu, camphor, red saunders, rasped, each, 2 drachms; oil of anise, ½ fluid drachm; diluted alcohol, 4 pints. Mix and macerate for 12 or 14 days. Two fluid drachms are equivalent to about ½ grain of opium. The following is the modified formula of the National Formulary:
TINCTURA PECTORALIS (IN. F.), Pectoral tincture, Guttae pectorales, Pectoral drops, Bateman's pectoral drops.—"Tincture of opium (U.S. P.), forty-two cubic centimeters (42 Cc.) [1 fl℥, 202♏︎]; compound tincture of catechu (U.S. P.), thirty cubic centimeters (30 Cc.) [1 fl℥, 7♏︎]; spirit of camphor (U. S. P.), forty cubic centimeters (40 Cc.) [1 fl℥, 169♏︎]; oil of anise, one cubic centimeter (1 Cc.) [16♏︎]; caramel, sixteen cubic centimeters (16 Cc.) [260♏︎]; diluted alcohol (U. S. P.), a sufficient quantity to make one thousand cubic centimeters (1000 Cc.) [33 fl℥, 391♏︎]. Mix the first 5 ingredients with enough diluted alcohol to make one thousand cubic centimeters (1000 Cc.) [33 fl℥, 391♏︎], and filter. Each fluid drachm contains 2 ½ minims of tincture of opium"—(Nat. Form.).
TINCTURA OPII AMMONIATA, Ammoniated tincture of opium.—Take of "tincture, of opium, 3 fluid ounces (Imp.), or 150 cubic centimeters (Metric); benzoic acid, 180 grains, or 20.6 grammes; oil of anise, 1 fluid drachm, or 6.25 cubic centimeters; solution of ammonia, 4 fluid ounces, or 200 cubic centimeters; alcohol (90 per cent), a sufficient quantity. Dissolve the oil of anise and the benzoic acid in 12 fluid ounces (or 600 cubic centimeters) of the alcohol; add the tincture of opium and the solution of ammonia; mix well; filter; add enough of the alcohol to form 1 pint (or 1000 cubic centimeters) of the tincture. Dose, ½ to 1 fluid drachm. This preparation contains the soluble matter of nearly 0.62 grain of opium (containing 10 per cent of morphine, reckoned as anhydrous) in 1 fluid drachm, or of nearly 5 grains of such opium in 1 fluid ounce"—(Br. Pharm., 1898). This preparation is formulated after the old Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia formula for Elixir Paregoricum Scoticum, or Scotch Paregoric Elixir, and was used to fulfil the same indications that our paregoric is designed to meet. The excess of ammonia employed and the alcohol hold the opium alkaloids in solution in a free condition. A weaker solution of ammonia would be apt to precipitate the morphine. It is an unsatisfactory preparation, and has once been discarded by the British Pharmacopoeia. Being much used by the people of Great Britain, it has been reinstated. About 1 grain of opium is represented in every 90 minims.
