Tinctura Aloes. U.S. Tincture of Aloes. Tr. Aloes.

Botanical name: 

Teinture (alcoole) d'Aloes, Fr. Cod.; Tinctura Aloes, P. G.; Aloetinktur, G.; Tinctura alcoholica de acibar, Sp.

"Aloes, in No. 40 powder, one hundred grammes [or 3 ounces av., 231 grains]; Glycyrrhiza, in No. 40 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 M, using diluted alcohol as the solvent." U. S.

Tincture of aloes was deleted from the Br. Pharm., 1914. The process of the previous British Pharmacopoeia is appended.

"Extract of Barbados Aloes, ½ ounce (Imperial) or 25 grammes; Liquid Extract of Liquorice, 3 fl. ounces (Imp. meas.) or 150 cubic centimetres; Alcohol (45 per cent.), a sufficient quantity. Place the Extract of Barbados Aloes in a closed vessel with sixteen fluid ounces (Imp. meas.) or eight hundred cubic centimetres of the Alcohol; set aside for forty-eight hours, occasionally shaking until dissolved; add the Liquid Extract of Liquorice; filter; pass sufficient of the Alcohol through the filter to produce one pint (Imp. meas.) or one thousand cubic centimetres of the Tincture." Br., 1898.

The strength of the British tincture, 1898, was only one-fourth that of the U. S. tincture. The formula of the U. S. (8th Rev.) directed glycyrrhiza instead of extract of licorice, but has returned to the process of maceration for its preparation. Meniere says of the tincture of aloes that it deposits crystals of aloin, which adhere to the sides of the bottle, and in the upper part of it a yellow resinous matter is seen.

Dose, as a purgative, from two to four fluidrachms (7.5-15.0 mils); as a laxative, from one-half to one fluidrachm (1.8-3.75 mils).


Related entry: Aloe


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