Tinctura Lactucarii. U. S. Tincture of Lactucarium. Tr. Lactucar.
Related entries: Lactucarium
Teinture (alcoole) de Lactucarium, Fr.; Lactucariumtinktur, G.
"Lactucarium, five hundred grammes [or 17 ounces av., 279 grains]; Glycerin, two hundred and fifty mils [or 8 fluidounces, 218 minims]; Alcohol, Purified Petroleum Benzin, Diluted Alcohol, Water, each, a sufficient quantity, to make one thousand mils [or 33 fluid-ounces, 6 ½ fluidrachms]. Beat the lactucarium with clean sand, in an iron mortar, to a coarse powder, and then transfer it to a bottle; add two thousand mils [or 67 fluidounces, 301 minims] of purified petroleum benzin, cork the bottle tightly, and set it aside for forty-eight hours, frequently agitating the mixture. Pour the mixture on a double filter, cover the funnel, and, when the liquid has passed through the filter, wash the residue gradually with fifteen hundred mils [or 50 fluidounces, 345 minims] of purified petroleum benzin, and allow the lactucarium to dry by exposing it to a current of air. When it is dry and free from the odor of benzin, reduce it to a powder, using more sand, if necessary, and pack it moderately in a conical percolator. Mix the glycerin with two hundred and fifty mils [or 8 fluidounces, 218 minims] of water, and five hundred mils [or 16 fluidounces, 435 minims] of alcohol, and gradually pour this mixture on the powder. When the liquid begins to drop from the percolator, close the lower orifice, and having closely covered the percolator, macerate for twenty-four hours. Then allow the percolation to proceed slowly, gradually adding first the remainder of the menstruum, and then diluted alcohol until the drug is exhausted. Reserve the first seven hundred and fifty mils [or 25 fluidounces, 173 minims] of the percolate, evaporate the remainder on a water bath, at a temperature not exceeding 70° C. (158° F.), until it measures two hundred and fifty mils [or 8 fluidounces, 218 minims], and mix this with the reserved portion. Filter the mixed liquids and wash the filter with sufficient diluted alcohol to make one thousand mils [or 33 fluidounces, 6 ½ fluidrachms] of Tincture." U. S.
This tincture was first official in the U. S. 1890. It is based on the formula of J. L. Lemberger, who recommended the extraction of the resinous inert lactucerin by treatment with petroleum benzin. Great care must be observed to use purified petroleum benzin, as it is almost impossible to get rid of the odor and taste of petroleum in the finished preparation if the ordinary benzin be used. It is as useless as the other preparations of lactucarium.
Dose, half to one fluidrachm (1.8-3.75 mils).
Off. Prep.—Syrupus Lactucarii, U. S.
