Abstract
FURTHER modifications in monographs of the British Pharmacopœia have been effected by way of notice in the Gazette of July 5. The chief one is an alteration in the standard for the alkaloidal content of ipecacuanha. The direction in the B.P. 1932 requires the root to contain not less than 2 per cent of the total alkaloids of ipecacuanha, calculated as emetine, of which not less than two thirds consists of non-phenolic alkaloids, calculated as emetine; the change now made is the substitution of “three fifths” for “two thirds”. Although the reduction in the standard is but slight, it will have a marked effect upon the availability of a drug which is regarded by the medical profession as an extremely important one, whether prescribed in the form of Galenical preparations, or as its alkaloid emetine, which is a specific in tropical dysentery. The 1932 test excluded from official recognition large importations of the root from Bahia and Minas Geraes, eastern States of Brazil, and virtually restricted the source of the standard drug to the western State of Matto Grosso. With the requirement as to the alkaloidal content reduced by a fifteenth, a substantial proportion of the shipments from the eastern States of Brazil will now conform to the B.P. standard. Thus the security of ipecacuanha root will be relieved and a reduction in the cost may be expected.
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The B.P. Standard for Ipecacuanha. Nature 146, 125 (1940). https://doi.org/10.1038/146125c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/146125c0