Extractum Cascara Sagradae. U. S. (Br.) Extract of Cascara Sagrada.

Botanical name: 

Ext. Casc. Sagr. [Extractum Rhamni Purshianae, U. S. VIII, Powdered Extract of Cascara Sagrada]

Related entries: Cascara Sagrada

"One gramme of the Extract represents three grammes of cascara sagrada." U. S.

Extractum Cascarae Sagradae Siccum, Br.; Dry Extract of Cascara Sagrada; Extrait de Cascara Sagrada, Fr. Cod.; Cascara Sagrada-Extrakt, Amerikanisches Faulbaumrindenextrakt, G.; Extracto alcoholico de cascara sagrada, Sp.

"Cascara Sagrada, in No. 20 powder, nine hundred grammes [or 31 ounces av., 327 grains] ;

Magnesium Oxide, twenty-five grammes [or 386 grains]; Starch, dried at 100° C. (212° F.), Boiling Water, each, o sufficient quantity, to make three hundred grammes [or 10 ounces av., 255 grains]. Mix the cascara sagrada with four thousand mils [or 135 fluidounces, 122 minims] of boiling water and macerate the mixture during three hours. Then transfer it to a metallic percolator, allow it to drain and pour on boiling water until the percolate measures five thousand mils [or 169 fluidounces, 33 minims], or the drug is exhausted. Evaporate the percolate to dryness on a water bath or steam bath, reduce the extract to a fine powder, weigh it, add the magnesium oxide and enough of the dried starch to make the product weigh three hundred grammes [or 10 ounces av., 255 grains]. Mix the powders thoroughly, pass the Extract through a fine sieve, transfer it to small, wide-mouthed bottles and stopper them tightly." U. S.

"Exhaust Cascara Sagrada, in No. 20 powder, with Distilled Water by the percolation process; evaporate the percolate to dryness on a water-bath;" Br.

This powdered extract was made official in the U. S. P. VIII for the first time; 1 part of the extract represented 4 parts of the drug; in the U. S. P. IX 1 part represents 3 parts of the drug.

The British preparation (1914) is a dry extract. It well represents the virtues of the bark, and furnishes a good means of administering this purgative in pilular form.

Dose, from two to eight grains (0.13-0.5 Gm.).

Off. Prep.—Pilulae Aloini, Strychninae et Belladonnae Compositae, N. F.


The Dispensatory of the United States of America, 1918, was edited by Joseph P. Remington, Horatio C. Wood and others.