A PROCESS FOR THE PURIFICATION OF OPIUM
Year: 1877

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Wilson Swan, Chemist, and Barnard Simpson
Proctor, Chemist, both of the Borough and County of Newcastle-on-Tyne, for
the Invention of "A PROCESS FOR THE PURIFICATION OF OPIUM."
Sealed the 11th June 1878, and dated the 14th December 1877.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Wilson Swan and
Barnard Simpson Proctor at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the
14th December 1877.
JOSEPH WILSON SWAN, Cheinist, and BARNARD SIMPSON PROCTOR, Chemist, both
of the Borough and County of Newcastle-on-Tyne. "A PROCESS FOR THE PURI-
FICATION OF OPIUM."
The object of our Invention is the purification of commercial opium for medical
use.
Commercial opium usually contains narcotine and other objectionable constituents
in considerable proportions, and is well known to vary to a dangerous extent as
regards the quantity of meconate of morphia which it contains, and upon which its
medicinal value depends; sundry fluid preparations of opium have long been in use
aiming at objects similar to those we have in view, but they are not applicable to
many of the purposes to which native opium or especially the rectified opium
produced by our process is suited.
The Invention consists in the treatment of opium with one or more solvents
which have the power of abstracting narcotine or narcotine and fat, wax, caoutchouc,
resin, &c., and leaving undissolved the morphia or such a quantity of the morphin
as will yield a finished product possessing the desired medicinal strength. For this
purpose we have employed ether, chloroform, ethylic, methylic, or amylic alcohol,
sulphide of carbon, benzine, light mineral oils, and oil of turpentine, either
separately or fixed in various ways with one another, or with ammonia or other
chemicals.
The mode of operating, which we prefer, is to reduce the crude opium to powder
in the usual way, and to treat it with one or more of the above-named solvents till

page_text: analysis shows that little or no narcotine is left, after which the opium may be
drained, and the solvent which it still retains recovered by distillation. This having
been accomplished the opium is to be ground, sampled, assayed, and adjusted to a
standard strength and is then ready for use.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Joseph Wilson Swan and Barnard Simpson Proctor in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 14th June 1878.
JOSEPH WILSON SWAN, Chemist, and BARNARD SIMPSON PROCTOR, Chemist, both
of the Borough and County of Newcastle-on-Tyne. "A PROCESS FOR THE PURI-
FICATION OF OPIUM."
Whereas commercial opium is well known to contain narcotine and other
objectionable matters, and to vary to a dangerous extent in regard to the proportion
of active matter it contains; it is expedient that opium for medicinal use should be
subjected to a process which should remove its narcotine, and render it uniform and
reliable as regards its medicinal strength.
Our Invention has for its object the improvement of opium for medicinal use by
removing from it narcotine and other objectionable matters; its nature consists in
the treating of the opium with such solvents as have the power of dissolving from
it narcotine and other objectionable matters without removing any considerable
quantity of the meconate of morphia, except in cases where the morphia is in excess
of the desired proportion, and in those cases with the removal of only such portion
of meconate of morphia as may be required to reduce the strength to a desirablo
standard; the solvents used, and the mode of using them being such as to leave the
opium in a condition fit for all medical purposes.
The manner in which our Invention is performed necessarily varies with the
nature of the opium to be operated upon, the following is an example of the treat-
ment of average Turkey opium.
A convenient quantity of dry opium in fine powder is put into a percolator of a
somewhat conical form, provided with a perforated false bottom covered with flannel,
and the true bottom fitted with a pipe and tap to regulate the flow of liquid. The
tap being closed a portion of the solvent herein-after described is poured upon the
opium and well mixed with it by stirring, a convenient proportion being one to
one and a half gallon for every 10 lbs. of opium. The mixture is allowed to
macerate two or three days, after which the solvent may be drained out, and a
further portion poured upon the surface of the opium to displace that which was
absorbed.
At intervals of a day or two the displacement may be repeated till the percolate
comes through almost free from narcotine or other matter desirable to be extracted;
the solvent mechanically retained by the opium after draining may be recovered by
distillation. The opium then only requires powdering and assaying, to fit it for all
the purposes to which powdered opium is applied, or working with a certain pro-

page_text: portion of water till reduced to a mass to fit it for all the purposes for which lump
opium is used. The solvent we prefer for operating in this way is a mixture of
eight parts by measure of chloroform with one part by measure of ether, but we
do not restrict ourselves to this solvent or to the mode of extraction above
described.
In certain circumstances one or more of the following solvents may be used either
mixed or separately, namely, ether, chloroform, benzine, light mineral oils, sulphide
of carbon, ethylic, methylic, or amylic alcohol, oil of turpentine, and when desirable
their action may be accompanied by that of ammonia or other chemicals.
Turkey opium containing but little free acid, when treated as above described,
will have its narcotine reduced to a small fraction of a unit per cent. Persian
opium frequently containing much free acid is more difficult to render satisfactorily
pure, but the narcotine may be liberated and extracted by the above treatment with
the addition of the passage of dry ammonia through the mixture of opium and
solvent till an alkaline reaction is permanently established, when the process may
be completed as before described. If water be excluded during the presence of the
ammonia the meconate of morphia remains undecomposed in the opium at the end
of the process. If the sample of opium under operation contains more than a
desirable proportion of morphia the proportion may be reduced to a desirable
standard by adding ethylic or methylic alcohol to the solvent. The meconate of
morphia being nearly insoluble in a mixture of chloroform and ethor, slightly more
soluble in the same with the addition of spirit, and freely soluble in a mixture of
chloroform and spirit without the addition of ether.
And having now described the nature of our said Invention and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, we declare that we claim, the purification of
opium for medicinal use from narcotine and other objectionable matleis, by any pro-
cess, the nature of which is substantially the same as that which is herein described.
In witness whereof, we, the said Joseph Wilson Swan and Barnard Simpson
Proctor, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Tenth day of June, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight.
TAAR AFT