Improvements in the manufacture and production of a pharmaceutical product.

  • Vereinigte Chininfabriken Zimmer & Co.
Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Improvements in the manufacture and production of a pharmaceutical product. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    N° 3706 A.D. 1896 Date of Application, 18th Feb., 1898 Complete Specification Left, 4th Nov,, 1896~Accepted, 19th Dec., 1896 PROVISrONAL SPECIFICATION. Improvements in the Manufacture and Production of a Pharmaceutical Product. 1, James Yate Johnson of 47 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, in the County of London, Gentleman do hereby declare the nature of this invention (which has been com¬ municated to me from abroad by the Firm or Company trading under the title of “Vereinigte Chininfabriken Zimmer & Co.” of 46 Darmstaedter Landstrasse, 6 Frankfort-on-tbe-Main in the Empire of Germany) to be as follows :— The fact that menthol is fit to be applied externally, as a remedy for certain ailments, is generally known; but it has hitherto, only to a limited extent been administered as medicine for internal use notwithstanding its conspicuous stimu¬ lating and restorative properties. The main difficulty that has so far stood in the 10 way of its introduction into use as medicine to be taken internally is its acrid burning taste ; a difficulty enhanced by the. absence ot any suitable solvent for it. The fact is that the usual solvents of menthol are either altogether unsuited to internal use (such for example, being the case with chloroform, sulphuret of carbon ligroine and the like,) or if brought to the requisite degree of concentration, they 15 are incapable of overcoming the pungent taste of menthol or of checking its irritating action upon the mucous membranes and in the case of alcohol and ether for instance the irritation is actually intensified. Natural peppermint oil contains menthol in widely varying proportions, and would not therefore admit of dosing with the requisite precision, in addition to which, owing to the presence of its 20 other constituents it precludes the menthol proper from producing its full effect. My foreign correspondents have discovered that fluid ethers such as are obtainable from fatty or other acids and menthol (and amongst which the ether of menthol and valerianic acid may be particularly instanced) are solvents which enable the menthol to be dosed very exactly the menthol being soluable in them in 25 any desired proportions. These ethers at the same time, render the menthol non-injurious to the human system, and even where solutions containing high percentages of menthol are prepared through their agency, these solvents have the property of considerably tempering the taste of the menthol, while they assist its action, and render it 3G effective and lasting; so that a small quantity of the solution suffices to produce most powerful effects without causing any caustic or irritating action, such as would unavoidably occur were the menthol taken, either pure, or dissolved in any other solvent. The said menthol solutions can be prepared as follows. The required quantity 35 of pure menthol may either be dissolved in pure menthol ether; or, in preparing this ether only part of the menthol employed may be converted into ether, instead of the entire quantity. -The amount of unconverted menthol may be readily determined by saponifying the ether, and then proportioning it to the desired percentage. 40 Good preparations have been obtained by dissolving from 10 to 30 per cent, of menthol in menthol-ether of valerianic acid; but the composition may vary according to requirements. Solutions such as these will prove to^ be excellent restoratives and invigorators, with the additional advantage of being free from \_F.rice 8J.j