Improvements in Medicinal Compounds, and Process of Preparing the same.
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 16th Aug., 1898-Accepted, 1st Oct., 1898
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Medicinal Compounds, and Process of Preparing
the same.
I, EDWIN WILEY GROVE, of 2626, Pine Street, Saint Louis, State of Missouri,
United States of America, Druggist, do hereby declare the nature of this inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement, that is to say: -
My invention relates to certain new and useful improvements in medicinal
compounds, and the process of preparing the same.
The object of my invention is the rendering or producing quinine in a powdered
form, the same being tasteless so that it can be administered dry on the tongue
and followed by a swallow of water, thus doing away with pills and capsules.
This method of producing quinine or derivatives of cinchona bark in a tasteless
condition and administering the same in a powdered form will fill a long felt
want in administering quinine to infants who cannot swallow pills or capsules,
and also to adults who object to pills and capsules. The finely powdered taste-
less quinine which I produce by the process hereinafter described, when finished,
is tasteless, because it is insoluble in the mouth (provided it is not held in the
mouth longer than is necessary) and dissolves more readily in the stomach than
does the sulphate of quinine when administered encased in capsules or sugar or
gelatine coated pills.
In preparing my tasteless preparation of quinine, I employ the following process:
I take of quinine, or any salt of quinia, or an alkaloid of cinchona bark, say three
hundred ounces; paraffine wax one third the amount by weight, or one hundred
ounces. To the three hundred ounces of quinine I add a sufficient quantity of
alcohol, ether, or other suitable liquid which will dissolve the same and thus
render the quinine thoroughly soluble. I take the soft paraffine wax and dissolve
it in the same manner. Thus far I have made two solutions, a solution of quinine,
and a solution of paraffine wax. I put these two solutions together and thoroughly
mix the same, and when the solutions are thoroughly mixed or united, I apply
a sufficient amount of heat by water bath to evaporate the alcohol, ether, or other
dissolvent agent used, and continue this process until a perfectly dry and homo-
geneous mass is obtained. I then take the mass thus produced and reduce it to
a fine powder, in which state the compound is ready for use.
By the above process, I can render quinine, quinidia, cinchonidia, cinchonia,
or any of the alkaloids of cinchona bark, or any of their salts, in connection with
paraffine wax, tasteless.
In carrying out my process, I can use, as a dissolving agent, alcohol, ether,
or any other liquid in which both the paraffine wax and the quinine are soluble.
In place of the paraffine wax, I can use any other substances which are insoluble
in water and which will also make the quinine insoluble in the
mouth and therefore free from bitter taste. While the wax, which is
thoroughly united with the quinine to render it insoluble in the mouth, is less
soluble in the stomach than gelatine, I have found by practical tests that the

page_text: uniting of the quinine (which is very susceptible to the action of the acids in the
stomach) renders the wax more soluble than gelatine in the stomach. One reason
for this is that with the coated pill or capsule, the stomach has only one large
substance upon which to work, while by administering the compound above
described in a fine powder, it gives the stomach a large number of small particles
upon which to act, thus rendering it more easy of digestion and assimilation than
when given in capsules or pills. For the same reason, calomel, an insoluble
substance, is rendered more potent and more easily assimilated by trituarating,
or reducing it to a very fine powder, thus giving the stomach a larger surface
upon which to do its work.
The quinine, or an alkaloid of cinchona bark herein referred to, or any salts
of the same, may be dissolved and then united with the paraffine wax, or other
substances, which are insoluble in water, by other processes than the use of
liquids. This may be done by simply melting together the quinine and paraffine,
or other insoluble substance, each in a dry state without the use of any liquid.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
I claim is:-
1. The herein described process of producing tasteless quinine, which consists
in dissolving a derivative of cinchona bark, taking a substance insoluble in water
and dissolving it, mixing and uniting said solutions, reducing said mixed solutions
to a solid homogeneous mass and then reducing said mass to a finely powdered
form, substantially as specified.
2. The herein described process of producing tasteless quinine, which consists
in taking a derivative of cinchona bark, as quinine, which has a bitter taste and
applying to said quinine a liquid in which the same is soluble, taking a sub-
stance which is insoluble in water and is tasteless and applying to said substance
a liquid in which the same is soluble, thus producing out of each of said quinine
and substance a perfect solution, thoroughly mixing and uniting said solutions,
applying heat to said united or mixed solutions to evaporate the dissolving liquid
whereby a solid and homogeneous mass is produced, and reducing said mass to a
finely powdered form, substantially as specified.
3. The herein described medicinal compound, consisting of quinine and paraffine
wax, substantially as specified.
4. The herein described medicinal compound, consisting of an alkaloid of
quinine bark and waxes, substantially as described.
5. The herein described medicinal compound, consisting of quinine and an
insoluble substance melted together to render the quinine tasteless, substantially
as described.
101
0
101
day of August 1896.
ERNEST DE PASS,
Chartered Patent Agent, 78, Fleet Street, London, &
5A, Market Street, Nottingham, Agent for the Applicant.