CHAPTER II. MEDICINAL USES OF HOPS. Hops are used medicinally for their stomachic and tonic properties. They are also to some extent suporific, especially the odorous vapours from them; hence a pillow stuffed with hops is occasionally employed as an agreeable sedative to induce sleep, and was obtained for George III. when a lunatic. The extract has been found to allay pain; but after all, it is a better adjunct to beer than as a medicine. The infusion and tincture act as pleasant aromatic tonics, but Pereira doubts the existence of the narcotic effects which have been ascribed to hops. are numerous. He, however, states that the medicinal properties of hops Both infusion and tincture of hops are mild and agreeable aromatic tonics. They sometimes manifest diuretic, or when the skin is kept warm, sudorific qualities. Their sedative, soporific, and anodyne properties are, however, very uncertain. Hops have been given internally to relieve restlessness consequent upon exhaustion or fatigue, to induce sleep in the wakefulness of mania and other maladies; to calm nervous irritation, and to relieve pain in gout and rheumatism. They have also been applied topically in the form of a fomentation or poultice, as a resolvent or discutient in painful swellings or tumours. As the narcotic properties are due to the volatile oil, hops should be obtained as fresh as possible; and the medicinal tincture made from a fresh, well-matured hop is preferable to one made from old lupuline, although it would not be as uniform in strength, from the great range in quality; but as it is difficult to obtain either hops or lupuline fresh at all times, the lupuline is preferable, as it is of more uniform strength, and retains its properties longer. The hop, when old, is of very unequal strength, from the loss of lupuline sifted out in handling. For pharmaceutical use hops are pressed into quarter-pound, half-pound, and pound packages. It is somewhat remarkable that lupuline has not found a place in the new Pharmacopoeia of this country. It may, however, be said that it is not altogether ignored, inasmuch as it is extracted for that purpose, but the amount of it in different samples varies considerably, and it is certain that this peculiar powdery matter represents the active principles of the entire strobili in a concentrated form. In order to free lupuline from sand, which often contaminates it, Sarrazin proposes to wash it with water. The lupuline was several times suspended in 10 parts of water, and poured off rapidly. It was then collected on a filter, and dried on it, at between 77° and 86° Fahr. From 5 grams he obtained 34 grains of purified lupuline, and the washings only contained between 2 and 3 grains of extract. The medicinal effect of the lupuline was not affected by the washing. Sarrazin* also proposes a liquid extract prepared as follows: Thirty parts lupuline are macerated in 100 parts alcohol for two days, filtered, the residue washed with a little more alcohol, and then infused in *Arch. Phar.,' Oct. 1874, p. 333. 200 parts water, strained, and evaporated on a steambath, the alcoholic extract being in the meantime evaporated at a temperature between 68° and 77° Fahr. The properly concentrated liquids are mixed and brought to the measure of 45 parts. The preparation, which is effective, requires shaking before dispensing it.* Dr. Dyce Duckworth, in a communication to the Pharmaceutical Journal,' in 1868,† remarks: "It is always desirable to possess the most powerful and concentrated preparation of the vegetable Materia Medica, and as no available active principle has as yet been separated from the hop, it should, in the meantime, be the endeavour of the pharmaceutist to obtain, and the physician to employ, the drug in its most complete and essential form. Hence I believe that at least one preparation of lupuline should be in use. 66 The powder itself is inconvenient-from seven to twelve grains are requisite for a dose, and it must be given in the form of pill. In this way, too, an amount of lignin and other inert principles are ingested, which it is not desirable to employ, and which, in certain cases of gastric disease, would be positively harmful. "This substance appears to be most fully appreciated in the United States of America. In the authorized codex of that country, I find there are no fewer than three preparations of it: a tincture, prepared with rectified spirit; a liquid extract (corresponding in strength to those of the ‘Pharmacopoeia Britannica,' viz. part for part); and an oleo-resin. The French Codex takes no notice of it. In the Edinburgh *Arch. Phar.,' Oct. 1875, p. 334. MEDICINAL USES OF HIVERSITY REESE LIBRARY 21 Pharmacopoeia, there was a tincture made with rectified spirit; and lupuline was officinal in the Dublin Pharmacopoeia. "During a recent series of pharmaceutical experiments with the powder, I was constantly struck with the remarkable valerian-like odour evolved from the different preparations, and I was much interested to find, in the course of subsequent reading on the subject, that M. Personne had discovered valerianic acid in lupuline.* "In none of the British Pharmacopoeia preparations of hops, except the extract, can it be said that the real strength of the drug is removed. The tincture made with proof spirit, which does not thoroughly exhaust the active parts of the scales of lupuline, and the watery infusion can but inadequately represent the virtues of this medicine. "The extract of hops, as prepared partly with spirit like the extract of jalap, has the advantage of containing some resin and volatile oil. It is the presence in so considerable an amount of resin, gum, and wax, in lupuline, that renders it important to select a proper solvent, and therefore proof spirit and water respectively are incapable of acting thoroughly upon it. We may, indeed, practically regard lupuline as a gum-resin, and to treat it pharmaceutically with success, we must apply the same solvents as we do in the case of drugs of that class. I have devised a preparation, which I think will prove most useful whenever it is desired to use the hop. It is an ammoniated tincture, and should be made in the same way as the other ammoniated tinctures of the Pharmacopoeia. “Like valerian, which also contains an oil and a resin, * Comptes Rendus,' 1854. lupuline is best exhausted by the aromatic spirit of ammonia, and the reason for this appears to be that this preparation contains the combination of alkali and rectified spirit necessary to the solution of the various elements in these drugs. Certainly no agent that I have tried extracts the virtues of lupuline so well as sal-volatile. The result is a strong, richly-coloured tincture. Neither rectified spirit, ether, nor of course proof spirit, produces so strong a preparation. I recommend the following formula: "Lupuline, 2 oz.; spirit ammon. arom., a pint. Macerate for seven days, agitating occasionally; then filter and add sufficient of the menstruum to make up to a pint. The dose of this is from m. 20 to fl. 3j. "I have no hesitation in directing attention to this preparation of the hop as the best we at present possess. According to Christison, the dose of tinctura lupuli should be fl. 3j to fl. 3iss, to produce any hypnotic effect; the ordinary dose consists of as many drachms. Dr. Ives, of New York, states that the tincture of lupuline is an effectual hypnotic in restlessness, the result of nervous irritability, and in delirium tremens. Some advantage, too, is derived from the presence of ammonia in considerable quantity, and this whether the preparation be exhibited as a hypnotic, or as a tonic combination of bitter and ammonia." Mr. C. Lewis Diehl thus prepares the elixirs prescribed by the physicians of Louisville: Elixir of Hops.- Add 2 fluid ounces of fluid extract of hops-made according to the formula for fluid extract of gentian of United States -to 13 fluid ounces of simple elixir; mix and filter. * Vide American Codex, also Nevin's 'Translation of Lond. Pharm.,' 1851. |
