Improvements in the Manufacture of Medical Extracts.
Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application, 19th May, 1891--Accepted, 20th June, 1891
[Communicated from abroad by THE AMERICAN ENFLEURAGE COMPANY, of
24, State Street, in the City and State of New York, United States of
America, a Corporation organized in accordance with the laws of said State
of New York.]
Improvements in the Manufacture of Medical Extracts.
I PHILIP ARTHUR NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 6 Bream's Buildings,
Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the
nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
This invention is based upon the discovery which has been made, of a property
which exists in that amorphous refined product of petroleum, which, when in a cold
state, is known as petroleum jelly, and of which vaseline is the best known example,
but of which other examples are known as petrolatum and cosmoline, such property
consisting in its capacity for extracting a very large proportion of the active
medicinal principles or ingredients of vegetable substances, and thereby obtaining
very highly concentrated medicinal extracts of such substances.
The invention consists, therefore, in the process of extracting the active medicinal
principles or ingredients of vegetable substances by the infusion of such substances
in the amorphous refined product of petroleum known as petroleum jelly, at a
temperature sufficiently elevated to ensure its. free fluidity, whereby the active
principles or ingredients of such substances are caused to be absorbed by said
product. The invention further consists in a medicinal preparation consisting of
the amorphous refined product of petroleum known as petroleum jelly, having
absorbed within, or in solution with it, the active principle or ingredient of a
vegetable substance.
The improved process is generally performed in a filter or percolating vessel
containing a porous or reticulated or perforated bed or diaphragm on which the
vegetable substances from which extracts are to be made, are placed in a layer or
body of convenient thickness. These substances, which may be seeds, leaves, bark,
fibres, wooden chips, or any portions of trees or plants, may be treated whole, or
may be ground, cut up, or otherwise divided, as may be most desirable, to facilitate
the extraction of their active medicinal principles or ingredients, and the vessel is
heated in any suitable manner to maintain them at such temperature, say, from
120° to 140° Fahrenheit, as will render perfectly fluid the refined amorphous
petroleum product, preferably vaseline, which is supplied above the said layer or
body, and allowed to percolate through it in such manner as to carry with it the
matter extracted.
Among the vegetable substances to which this process of obtaining extracts is
applicable, may be mentioned mustard, cloves, coffee, cinnamon, coca, bay-leaves,
pimento, red pepper, celery seeds, stalks, and leaves, ginger, hops, arnica, chinchona
bark, boneset, thyme, mint; but it may be stated generally that the process may
be applied to all vegetable substances, the active medicinal principles or ingredients
of which are soluble in, or capable of being absorbed, by the refined products of
petroleum.
The infusion, instead of being effected by percolation, as described, may be effected
by steeping the vegetable substances in the amorphous petroleum product herein
described, while the latter is maintained at a proper temperature to ensure its free
fluidity, and afterwards straining or filtering.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion (as communicated to me by my foreign correspondent), and in what manner
the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is
1. The process herein described of obtaining medicinal extracts from vegetable
substances, consisting in the infusion of such substances in that amorphous refined
petroleum product known as petroleum jelly, at a temperature sufficiently elevated
to ensure its free fluidity, whereby the active principles or ingredients of said
substances are caused to be absorbed or taken up by said product, substantially as
herein described.
2. As a new product, petroleum jelly having infused within it the active principle
or ingredient of a vegetable substance, substantially as herein described.
Dated this 19th day of May 1891
NEWTON & SON,
Agents for the Applicant