Extractum Spigeliae Fluidum (U. S. P.)—Fluid Extract of Spigelia.

Botanical name: 

Related entry: Spigelia (U. S. P.)—Spigelia - Compound Fluid Extract of Spigelia. - Fluid Extract of Spigelia and Senna.

Preparation.—"Spigelia, in No. 60 powder, one thousand grammes (1000 Gm.) [2 lbs. av., 3 ozs., 120 grs.]; diluted alcohol, a sufficient quantity to make one thousand cubic centimeters (1000 Cc.) [33 fl℥, 391♏]. Moisten the powder with three hundred cubic centimeters (300 Cc.) [10 fl℥, 69♏] of diluted alcohol, and pack it firmly in a cylindrical percolator; then add enough diluted alcohol 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 48 hours. Then allow the percolation to proceed, gradually adding diluted alcohol, until the spigelia is exhausted. Reserve the first eight hundred and fifty cubic centimeters (850 Cc.) [28 fl℥, 356♏] of the percolate, and evaporate the remainder to a soft extract; dissolve this in the reserved portion, and add enough diluted alcohol to make the fluid extract measure one thousand cubic centimeters (1000 Cc.) [33 fl℥, 391♏]"—(U. S. P.).

Description, Medical Uses, and Dosage.—(See Spigelia). This is a deep-brown translucent, concentrated tincture, possessing the taste of the crude drug. In the original process sugar was employed; this was supplanted, in 1870, by 50 per cent of glycerin; at the present time both have been discarded, the preparation having been found to keep well without them. This forms a fluid extract which may be employed in all cases where pink-root is indicated. The dose for an adult is from 2 to 4 fluid drachms; for a child 1 or 2 years of age, from 10 to 30 minims.


King's American Dispensatory, 1898, was written by Harvey Wickes Felter, M.D., and John Uri Lloyd, Phr. M., Ph. D.