Extractum Gossypii.—Extract of Gossypium.
Related entry: Gossypii Radicis Cortex (U. S. P.)—Cotton Root Bark
SYNONYM: Extract of cotton-root bark.
Preparation.—Exhaust the recent inner bark of the root of the cotton plant, in small pieces, with water, a sufficient quantity, proceeding in the same manner as explained for the preparation of Aqueous Extracts, on page 758. The pilular extract should be placed in small jars, and kept well covered, to prevent, as much as possible, any loss of its virtues. Unless made of the recent root it will be inert, and even then it is a question as to whether the heat of concentration does not materially affect the product.
Medical Uses and Dosage.—Extract of cotton-root bark is emmenagogue and abortifacient. It will be found useful in amenorrhoea and dysmenorrhoea, combined with belladonna and quinine. The dose is from 1 to 5 or 10 grains, 3 times a day (J. King).
Extractum Gossypii Radicis Fluidum (N. F.)—Fluid Extract of Cotton-Root Bark.
Preparation.—"Cotton-root bark, in No. 30 powder, one thousand grammes (1000 Gm.) [2 lbs. av., 3 ozs., 120 grs.]; glycerin, two hundred and fifty cubic centimeters (250 Cc.) [8 fl℥, 218♏]; alcohol, a sufficient quantity to make one thousand cubic centimeters (1000 Cc.) [33 fl℥, 391♏]. Mix the glycerin with seven hundred and fifty cubic centimeters (750 Cc.) [25 fl℥, 173♏] of alcohol, and, having moistened the powder with five hundred cubic centimeters (500 Cc.) [16 fl℥, 435♏] of the mixture, pack it firmly in a cylindrical percolator; then add enough 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 48 hours. Then allow the percolation to proceed, gradually adding, first, the remainder of the menstruum, and then alcohol, until the cotton-root bark is exhausted. Reserve the first seven hundred cubic centimeters (700 Cc.) [23 fl℥, 321♏] of the percolate, and evaporate the remainder to a soft extract; dissolve this in the reserved portion, and add enough 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 Gossypium). This preparation is a bright-red fluid. It should be prepared from the recently dried root bark. Dose, 1/2 to 1 fluid drachm.
Gossypium fluid extract is typical of those red-tannin liquids that disintegrate spontaneously. The product is a brown magma and a watery serum. No explanation has been given for this change, which occurs without warning, and which may affect only a few bottles in a batch.
King's American Dispensatory, 1898, was written by Harvey Wickes Felter, M.D., and John Uri Lloyd, Phr. M., Ph. D.