Syrupus Sanguinariae (N. F.)—Syrup of Sanguinaria.
Related entry: Sanguinaria (U. S. P.)—Sanguinaria
SYNONYM: Syrup of bloodroot.
Preparation.—Take of bloodroot, in coarse powder, 8 ounces; acetic acid, 4 fluid ounces; water, 5 pints; refined sugar, 2 troy pounds. Macerate the bloodroot for 3 days in 2 fluid ounces of the acetic acid and a pint of the water, then transfer to a percolator, and displace with the remainder of the acetic acid mixed with the balance of the water. Evaporate, by means of a water-bath, to 18 fluid ounces, add the sugar, and form a syrup. By the above process, carefully conducted, the root will be exhausted, and a syrup of a deep-ruby color obtained, opaque in quantity, but transparent in thin strata, having a strongly acrid and bitterish taste.
The National Formulary directs its preparation as follows: "Sanguinaria, in No. 20 powder, two hundred and twenty-five grammes (225 Gm.) [7 ozs. av., 410 grs.]; acetic acid (U. S. P.), one hundred and twenty-five cubic centimeters (125 Cc.) [4 fl℥, 109♏︎]; sugar, eight hundred grammes (800 Gm.) [1 lb. av., 12 ozs., 96 grs.]; water, a sufficient quantity to make one thousand cubic centimeters (1000 Cc.) [33 fl℥, 391♏︎]. Mix the acetic acid with three hundred and seventy-five cubic centimeters (375 Cc.) [12 fl℥, 327♏︎] of water, moisten the sanguinaria with a sufficient quantity of this menstruum, and allow it to macerate for 2 hours. Then pack it in a glass percolator, and percolate in the usual manner, first with the remainder of the menstruum previously prepared, and afterward with water, until seven hundred and fifty cubic centimeters (750 Cc.) [25 fl℥, 173♏︎] of percolate are obtained, or until the sanguinaria is practically exhausted. Evaporate the percolate, at a moderate heat, to four hundred and fifty cubic centimeters (450 Cc.) [15 fl℥, 104♏︎]; In this dissolve the sugar with a gentle heat, if necessary, and add enough water to make one thousand cubic centimeters (1000 Cc.) [33 fl℥, 391♏︎]; Each fluid drachm represents about 1.3 grains of sanguinaria"—(Nat. Form.).
Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage.—This syrup may be used in all cases where bloodroot is applicable, in doses of from 10 to 60 drops. An excellent cough mixture is composed of equal parts of syrup of squill, syrup of balsam of tolu, syrup of ipecacuanha, syrup of bloodroot, and paregoric; the dose of which is a teaspoonful whenever the cough is troublesome. Syrups of wild cherry bark, bloodroot, balsam of tolu, and fluid extract of stillingia, combined in equal proportions, have been found very useful in chronic catarrhal and bronchial affections. Prof. E. S. Wayne prepared a good expectorant by dissolving 1 grain of sulphate of sanguinarine in 1 fluid ounce of simple syrup; the dose is ½ fluid drachm, 3 or 4 times a day. It may be added as a valuable adjuvant to other expectorants.
