Fluidextractum Glycyrrhizae. U. S. (Br.) Fluidextract of Glycyrrhiza.
Fldext. Glycyrrh.
Related entries: Glycyrrhiza
Extractum Glycyrrhizae Liquidum, Br.; Liquid Extract of Liquorice; Fluidextract of Licorice or Liquorice; Extrait liquide de Reglisse, Fr.; Flüssiges Süssholzwurzelextrakt, G.
"Glycyrrhiza, in No. 20 powder, one thousand grammes [or 35 ounces av., 120 grains]; Alcohol, two hundred and fifty mils [or 8 fluid-ounces, 218 minims]; Ammonia Water, Chloroform Water, Water, each, a sufficient quantity, to make one thousand mils [or 33 fluidounces, 6 ½ fluidrachms]. Mix three hundred mils [or 10 fluidounces, 69 minims] of ammonia water with twenty-seven hundred mils [or 91 fluid-ounces, 142 minims] of chloroform water and moisten the glycyrrhiza with a sufficient quantity of the mixture; pack it in a cylindrical percolator and add enough of the menstruum 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 forty-eight hours. Then allow the percolation to proceed slowly, gradually adding more of the same menstruum until the glycyrrhiza is exhausted. Reserve the first five hundred mils [or 16 fluidounces, 435 minims] of the percolate and evaporate the remainder on a water bath to a soft extract; dissolve this in the reserve portion and add enough water to make the product measure seven hundred and fifty mils [or 25 fluidounces, 173 minims]. A few drops of ammonia water may be added if necessary to facilitate solution. Now gradually add the alcohol, allow the product to stand for seven days in a stoppered container, then decant the clear liquid, filter the remainder and wash the residue on the filter with enough of a mixture of one volume of alcohol and three volumes of water to make the Fluidextract measure one thousand mils [or 33 fluidounces, 6 ½ fluidrachms]." U.S.
"Liquorice Root, in No. 20 powder, 1000 grammes; Chloroform Water, 5000 millilitres; Alcohol (90 per cent.), a sufficient quantity. Mix the Liquorice Root with one-half of the Chloroform Water; set aside for twenty-four hours; strain; press; to the pressed marc add the remainder of the Chloroform Water, and set aside for six hours; strain; press; mix the strained liquids; heat to 100° C. (212° F.); strain through flannel; evaporate until the liquid has acquired, when cold, a specific gravity of 1.200; add to this one-fourth of its volume of the Alcohol; let the mixture stand for twelve hours; filter." Br.
The process for this fluidextract was materially changed in the U. S. P. VIII. The former processes, while making stable fluidextracts of good appearance, were deficient in not providing for the removal of the acrid, oily constituent found in licorice root; the U. S. P. VIII process overcame this difficulty by exhausting the coarsely powdered root with boiling water, concentrating the infusions, adding alcohol to precipitate inert constituents, and filtering; the filtrate was distilled to recover the excess of alcohol, and glycerin, ammonia water and alcohol added to bring the measure to the required standard. This process was essentially that recommended by A. R. L. Dohme. The U. S. P. IX process differs materially. Chloroform water is used to exhaust the licorice root with ammonia water to dissolve the glycyrrhizin, alcohol is added finally to preserve the fluidextract. The object of using chloroform water in the U. S. and British processes is to prevent decomposition in the aqueous liquids. The British formula for the liquid extract has several inconvenient manipulative features, such as the repeated macerations and expressions, evaporating to a certain specific gravity, etc. (See Mont. Pharm. Journ., 1893, 147; P. J., 1898, 188.) This preparation is now very largely used as an adjuvant, and for disguising the bitter taste of quinine, which should be added to the preparation of licorice just before the dose is taken. It is a very convenient form for using licorice, as the ammonia renders the glycyrrhizin soluble, thus materially adding to the power and sweetness of the fluid-extract, and it also greatly lessens the acridity. It is a very dark reddish-brown liquid, having the well known sweet taste of licorice, and froths when shaken with water. A syrup of licorice may be made by adding two parts of fluidextract to fourteen parts of simple syrup. (See also N. F., Part III.) An elixir containing licorice (Elixir Adjuvans) was made official in the U. S. P. VIII and introduced into the U. S. P. IX under the name of Elixir of Glycyrrhiza.
Used as a vehicle only.
Off. Prep.—Elixir Glycyrrhizae, U. S.; Mistura Sennae Composita, Br.; Syrupus Sarsaparillae Compositus, U. S.; Elixir Glycyrrhizae Aquosum, N. F.; Elixir Glycyrrhizae Aromaticum, N. F.; Elixir Taraxaci Compositum, N. F.; Syrupus Cimicifugae Compositum, N. F.
