Syrupus Zingiberis. U. S., Br.

Botanical name: 

Syrupus Zingiberis. U. S., Br.

Syrup of Ginger. Syr. Zingib.

Related entry: Ginger

Sirop de Gingembre, Fr.; Ingwersirup, G.

"Fluidextract of Ginger, thirty mils [or 1 fluidounce, 7 minims]; Alcohol, twenty mils [or 325 minims]; Magnesium Carbonate, ten grammes [or 154 grains]; Sugar, eight hundred and twenty grammes [or 28 ounces av., 405 grains]; Water, a sufficient quantity, to make one thousand mils [or 33 fluidounces, 6 ½ fluidrachms]. Mix the fluidextract of ginger and the alcohol, then triturate the liquid in a mortar with the magnesium carbonate and sixty grammes [or 2 ounces av., 51 grains] of the sugar. Then gradually add four hundred and thirty mils [or 14 fluidounces, 259 minims] of water, with constant trituration, and filter. Dissolve the remainder of the sugar in the clear filtrate, with the aid of a gentle heat, strain the syrup while hot, and idd sufficient water to make the product measure one thousand mils [or 33 fluidounces, 6 ½ fluidrachms]. Syrup of Ginger may also be made in the following manner: Prepare a percolator in the manner described under Syrupus. Pour the filtrate obtained as directed in the preceding formula upon the remainder of the sugar, return the first portions of the percolate until it runs through clear, and, when all the liquid has passed, follow it with water, until all of the sugar is dissolved and the product measures one thousand mils [or 33 fluidounces, 6 ½ fluidrachms]. Mix thoroughly." U. S.

"Ginger, in powder, 25 grammes; Alcohol (90 per cent.), a sufficient quantity; Syrup, sufficient to produce 1000 millilitres. Prepare fifty millilitres of a strong tincture of the Ginger by the process of percolation with the Alcohol. To this add sufficient of the Syrup to produce the required volume." Br.

The U. S. P. process has been improved by the addition of magnesium carbonate as an aid in distributing the resinous fluidextract so as to facilitate its solution in water. It is practically a return to the U. S. 1870 method.

The British syrup, being made by the simple incorporation of the tincture with syrup, has of course all the strength of the ginger, -but is inferior to the U. S. preparation in appearance and flavor. The old plan of using water as the menstruum for the drug has been abandoned, as the syrup thus made is encumbered with mucilage and starch, and consequently rendered more liable to decomposition. In order that the preparation may be of the proper strength, it is necessary that the fluidextract should have been made with the best ginger and with the official menstruum. The syrup of ginger is much used as a warm stomachic addition to tonic and purgative infusions or mixtures, and to impact flavor particularly to carbonic acid water.

Dose, one to four fluidrachms (3.75-15.0 mils).


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