Extractum Lobeliae Fluidum (U. S. P.)—Fluid Extract of Lobelia. Extractum Lobeliae Fluidum C

Extractum Lobeliae Fluidum (U. S. P.)—Fluid Extract of Lobelia.

Related entry: Lobelia (U. S. P.)—Lobelia

Preparation.—"Lobelia, 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 and fifty cubic centimeters (350 Cc.) [11 fl℥, 401♏] 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 lobelia is exhausted. Reserve the first eight hundred and fifty cubic centimeters (850 Cc.) [28 fl℥, 356♏] of the percolate, and evaporate the remainder, at a temperature not exceeding 50° C. (122° F.), 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.—This is a dark greenish-brown fluid exhibiting the acrid and nauseating properties of lobelia. It may be used wherever lobelia is indicated. The dose is from 5 minims to 1 fluid drachm, according to the effect required, and which are equivalent to 5 grains to 1 drachm of the powder.


Extractum Lobeliae Fluidum Compositum.—Compound Fluid Extract of Lobelia.

Preparation.—Take of recently dried bloodroot, skunk-cabbage root, and lobelia seed and leaves, each, coarsely powdered, 4 troy ounces; alcohol, diluted alcohol, each, a sufficient quantity. Moisten the powders mixed together, with sufficient alcohol, and let them stand for 24 hours; then transfer the mixture to a percolator, and gradually add alcohol, returning a little of the first that passes, until it runs clear. Reserve, by itself, of the first or strongest percolate, 12 fluid ounces; then pour diluted alcohol on the residuum in the percolator, until the liquid that comes through has very little of the color or taste of the medicine; evaporate this latter solution to 4 fluid ounces by a heat considerably below the boiling point, and while warm mix in the reserved tincture, and make 1 pint of fluid extract.

Medical Uses and Dosage.—This fluid extract is emetic, expectorant, and antispasmodic, and may be used as a substitute for the acetated tincture of bloodroot; A fluid drachm of the extract is equivalent to about 1 drachm of the powder; the dose is from 10 to 60 minims, according to the desired effect (E. S. Wayne).


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