Tinctura Zingiberis. U. S., Br. Tincture of Ginger. Tr. Zingib. [Tincture of Jamaica Ginger]
Related entries: Ginger
Teinture (alcoole) de Gingembre, Fr. Cod.; Tinctura Zingiberis, P. G.; Ingwertinktur, G.
"Jamaica Ginger, in No. 30 powder, two hundred grammes [or 7 ounces av., 24 grains], to make one thousand mils [or 33 fluidounces, 6 ½ fluidrachms]. Prepare a Tincture by Type Process P, using alcohol as the menstruum. Evaporate 10 Gm. of Tincture of Ginger to dryness in a tared dish on a water bath; the yield of residue does not exceed 2 per cent. When treated with 20 mils of cold distilled water, not more than 15 per cent. of this residue dissolves. Evaporate 10 mils of Tincture of Ginger to dryness in a small flask. Add 5 mils of half-normal alcoholic potassium hydroxide V.S. and boil the mixture gently for thirty minutes under a reflux condenser. Remove the condenser and evaporate the alcohol on a water bath. Then add 50 mils of distilled water to the residue, agitate the mixture, filter it and transfer the aqueous filtrate to a separatory funnel and shake it out with 25 mils of ether. Evaporate the separated ether solution spontaneously by adding it, a few drops at a time, to the center of a watch glass. Cautiously apply the tip of the tongue to the dry residue; the taste should be slightly camphoraceous but not sharp or bitingly-pungent (capsicum or similar pungent substitute). It contains about 90 per cent. of C2H5.OH by volume." U. S.
"Ginger, in No. 40 powder, 100 grammes; Alcohol (90 per cent.), sufficient to produce 1000 millilitres. Moisten the powder with one hundred millilitres of the Alcohol, and complete the percolation process." Br.
The strength of this tincture was reduced at the 1880 revision one-third, to bring it into the 20 per cent. class; this is not a disadvantage, however, in view of the introduction of the fluidextract, and the dose is not now inconveniently large.
The tincture of the British Pharmacopoeia is still too weak in the proportion of ginger. In consequence of the mucilaginous matter contained in ginger, the tincture made with diluted alcohol or proof spirit is apt to be turbid, and the drug is incompletely exhausted of its resinous and oily constituents. Alcohol or rectified spirit is, therefore, properly preferred. Official Jamaica ginger only should be used; for, while a darker-colored preparation is made when the inferior varieties are substituted, the apparent increase in strength is due to coloring matter, and not to the presence of a larger amount of volatile oil or resin.
The tincture of ginger is a useful carminative, and may often be beneficially added to tonic and purgative infusions or mixtures in debilitated states of the alimentary canal. It is in this country largely used for the preparation of a syrup of ginger, for which purpose, however, the fluidextract is official, and is better even than the strong tincture of the Br. Pharmacopoeia 1885, which was dropped at the 1898 revision.
Dose, eight to forty minims (0.5-2.5 mils).
Off. Prep.—Acidum Sulphuricum Aromaticum, U. S., Br.
