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The principal period groups were digitalis preparations, squill, broom, juniper oil, buchu, nitrous ether spirit, and several soluble potassium salts. They were grouped by observed promotion of urine flow, rather than by one common mechanism. The following are historical adult quantities per administration, expressed in the contemporary units; they are not present-day prescriptions.
- Digitalis preparations: powdered leaves, ½–2 grains; Infusum Digitalis, 2–4 fluid drachms; Tinctura Digitalis, 5–40 minims; digitalin, 1/40–1/10 grain in the period table. Historical digitalin was not simply a modern pure digoxin product.
- Squill: powder, 1–2 grains; Pilula Scillae Composita, 5–10 grains; Tinctura Scillae, 10–20 minims; Syrupus Scillae, ½–1½ fluid drachms.
- Broom: Decoctum Scoparii, 1–3 fluid ounces; Succus Scoparii, 1–4 fluid drachms.
- Buchu: powdered leaves, 20–40 grains; Infusum Bucco, 1–2 fluid ounces; Tinctura Bucco, 1–2 fluid drachms.
- Juniper oil: Spiritus Juniperi, 10–30 minims in the 1864 commentary. This unusually concentrated spirit contains one volume of juniper oil in ten; its dose must not be borrowed from a later, weaker formula.
- Nitrous ether spirit, Spiritus Aetheris Nitrosi: 30 minims to 2 fluid drachms.
- Potassium acetate: 10–20 grains; potassium citrate: 20–60 grains; potassium nitrate: 5–20 grains; potassium tartrate: 10–60 grains; potassium hydrogen tartrate: 20–60 grains.
- Ammonium acetate solution, Liquor Ammoniae Acetatis: 10–40 minims of the concentrated British preparation, diluted for administration.
[ref]
The Essentials of Materia Medica and Therapeutics by Alfred Baring Garrod (1865). Posological table: Digitalis, Infusum Digitalis, Scoparius preparations, Bucco preparations, Spiritus Aetheris Nitrosi, potassium salts and Liquor Ammoniae Acetatis; Liliaceae: squill preparations
[ref]The Prescriber's Analysis of the British Pharmacopoeia by John Birkbeck Nevins (1864). p. 61, Spiritus Juniperi, 1 in 10 and 10–30 minims
Other recognised period agents included dandelion and copaiba. The dandelion decoction was given in quantities of 1–2 fluid ounces, its soft extract in quantities of 10–30 grains, and its preserved juice in quantities of ½–2 fluid drachms. Copaiba was given in quantities of 15–30 minims, and copaiba oil in quantities of 5–20 minims. Their historical inclusion does not establish that they are suitable substitutes for current diuretic therapy. [ref]
The Essentials of Materia Medica and Therapeutics by Alfred Baring Garrod (1865). Posological table, Taraxacum preparations, Copaiba and Copaibae Oleum
The distinction between preparations matters more than a single “dose of the plant”: an infusion, tincture, juice and powder have different concentrations. Likewise, a salt's small historical diuretic dose is not its larger purgative dose. A modern explanation also separates a direct effect on renal tubules from improved cardiac output in appropriate heart failure: digitalis preparations cannot be understood simply as agents that make every kidney excrete more water. Modern digoxin is used for selected cardiac indications, rather than as a general treatment for low urine output. [ref]
Digoxin by MedlinePlus. Why is this medication prescribed?
The compositions must be specified ingredient by ingredient; the two alkaloidal solutions contain 4 grains per nominal fluid ounce, but one contains a morphine salt and the other strychnine.
Pulvis Jalapae Compositus contains powdered jalap 5 avoirdupois ounces, potassium hydrogen tartrate 9 avoirdupois ounces, and powdered ginger 1 avoirdupois ounce. Thus the mass proportions are 5:9:1, and jalap supplies one third of the powder's mass. This is a compound purgative, not pure jalap resin. [ref]
The Essentials of Materia Medica and Therapeutics by Alfred Baring Garrod (1865). Convolvulaceae, Jalapa, compound powder
Pilula Scillae Composita contains powdered squill 1¼ avoirdupois ounces, powdered ginger, ammoniacum and hard soap 1 avoirdupois ounce each, with treacle 2 avoirdupois ounces, or sufficient to make a pill mass. Using the specified 2 avoirdupois ounces of treacle, the whole is 6¼ avoirdupois ounces and contains one fifth squill by mass. The allowance of sufficient treacle makes consistency a compounding requirement, not a claim that every moist pill batch has an analytically exact 20% squill content. [ref]
The Essentials of Materia Medica and Therapeutics by Alfred Baring Garrod (1865). Liliaceae, British compound squill pill, distinguished from bracketed American formula
Liquor Morphiae Hydrochloratis contains morphine hydrochloride 4 grains, dilute hydrochloric acid 8 minims, rectified spirit 2 fluid drachms and distilled water 6 fluid drachms. Its conventional strength is ½ grain of morphine hydrochloride per fluid drachm, not ½ grain of free morphine. The small quantity of hydrochloric acid maintains an acid solution. [ref]
Liquor Strychniae contains strychnine 4 grains, dilute hydrochloric acid 6 minims, rectified spirit 2 fluid drachms and distilled water 6 fluid drachms. Dissolve the strychnine in the acid mixed with part of the water, using the prescribed assistance of heat, then add the spirit and remaining water. Its conventional strength is ½ grain of strychnine per fluid drachm. Acid promotes solubility by forming a soluble salt of the alkaloid. [ref]
For the last two solutions, the stated historical strengths use the nominal 8 fluid drachms of spirit and water. The extra few minims of dilute acid must still appear in the actual recipe; treating all ingredient volumes as perfectly additive would not give an exact modern analytical concentration.
The required sequence is fresh flowers; sliced and dried bulb; unexpanded petals; heartwood; seeds; expressed seed fat; expressed seed oil; and fresh and dried root. The plant organ, its state, and the actual official material must all be specified.
- Sambucus nigra: fresh flowers. The official article is Sambuci flores, elder flowers, gathered from the native plant. The flower stalks are separated when making elder-flower water; the preparation also allows an equivalent quantity of flowers preserved fresh with common salt. Neither elder berries nor elder bark answers the botanical part asked here.[ref]British Pharmacopoeia by the General Medical Council (1867). “Sambuci flores”, p. 274; “Aqua sambuci”, p. 45
- Squill: the sliced and dried bulb. The historical botanical source is Urginea scilla, also identified there as Scilla maritima. The medicinal slices consist of the fleshy bulb scales; this is an underground shoot structure, not a root. The official article is Scilla.[ref]British Pharmacopoeia by the General Medical Council (1867). “Scilla”, pp. 279–280
- Rosa gallica: the fresh and dried unexpanded petals. These are Rosæ gallicæ petala, the red-rose material. “Unexpanded” refers to collection before the flower has opened fully. The petals must be distinguished from the rose hip used for a different official preparation.[ref]British Pharmacopoeia by the General Medical Council (1867). “Rosæ gallicæ petala”, red-rose monograph
- Pterocarpus santalinus: the sliced or rasped heartwood. This is Pterocarpi lignum, red sandalwood. The answer is the wood, rather than bark or the exudate known as kino. Botanical relationship between two medicinal materials does not make their official definitions interchangeable.[ref]British Pharmacopoeia by the General Medical Council (1867). “Pterocarpi lignum”, p. 261
- Physostigma venenosum: the seed. Physostigmatis faba, the Calabar bean, is botanically a seed, not the entire pod. Its two large cotyledons lie inside a hard seed coat. The official alcoholic extract is made from the powdered seed.[ref]British Pharmacopoeia by the General Medical Council (1867). “Physostigmatis faba”, pp. 233–234; “Extractum physostigmatis”, p. 126
- Theobroma cacao: the concrete oil obtained by expression and heat from the ground seeds. The official article is Oleum theobromæ, cocoa butter. Naming the seed gives its source organ, but omits the important fact that the official pharmaceutical material is the separated fat. It is distinct from coconut oil.[ref]British Pharmacopoeia by the General Medical Council (1867). “Oleum theobromæ”, p. 229
- Croton tiglium: the oil expressed from the seeds. The official material is Oleum crotonis, croton oil, rather than the whole plant or an unspecified leaf preparation. The seeds are its source; the expressed oil is the article used in the official formulations.[ref]British Pharmacopoeia by the General Medical Council (1867). “Oleum crotonis”, p. 222
- Taraxacum officinale: the fresh and dried root. The official article is Taraxaci radix, dandelion root, called Taraxacum dens leonis in the 1867 standard, gathered between September and February from British meadows and pastures. The collection season and fresh/dried distinction belong to the historical standard; the answer is not the leaves or flowers.[ref]British Pharmacopoeia by the General Medical Council (1867). “Taraxaci radix”, p. 317
The names in the paper sometimes use the shorter terminology of the first British Pharmacopoeia, whereas the 1867 edition explicitly renamed many entries to identify the medicinal organ. Its alteration list, for example, maps Sambucus to Sambuci flores, Pterocarpus to Pterocarpi lignum, and Taraxacum to Taraxaci radix.[ref]
British Pharmacopoeia by the General Medical Council (1867). “Articles the names of which have been altered”, pp. xix–xxi
That is a nomenclature change, not permission to choose any part of the named plant.