B. IODINE AND B. OLEUM IODINE

Report of the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry

The Council has authorized publication of the following report on “B. Iodine” and “B. Oleum Iodine,” together with the reply submitted by the manufacturer and a discussion thereon by the referee in charge of the preparations.

W. A. Puckner, Secretary.

Specimens of B. Iodine and B. Oleum Iodine (B. Iodine Chemical Company) and an advertising pamphlet were sent to the Council by John Bohlander, A.M., M.D., with the declaration:

“Well knowing the value of Iodin in surgical operations and dressings, prompted me for the benefit of my fellow physicians as well as myself, and for Humanity’s sake, to make Iodin my master-piece in chemistry.

“After several years of diligent work in my private laboratory I succeeded in discovering a new product of Iodin—Nitrogen, hydrate of Iodin.”

While “B. Iodine” is said to be nitrogen hydrate of iodin and “B. Oleum Iodine” a 5 per cent. solution thereof, the examination made by Prof. A. H. Clark of the University of Illinois, School of Pharmacy (working in the A. M. A. Chemical Laboratory), indicates that the first is a simple mixture of iodin and ammonium iodid, and the second a solution of iodin in liquid petrolatum. The Council adopted the report of the A. M. A. Chemical Laboratory (which appears below) and declared B. Iodine and B. Oleum Iodine inadmissible to New and Non­official Remedies because:

1. The composition is incorrectly declared. B. Iodine is not a newly discovered iodin compound, “Nitrogen Hydrate of Iodine,” but a mixture of iodin and ammonium iodid. B. Oleum Iodine is not a 5 per cent. solution of B. Iodine as suggested by the statement on the label and in the advertising, but a solution of iodin in liquid petrolatum containing about 0.85 per cent. of iodin.

2. Since B. Iodine is a mixture of Iodin and ammonium iodid, its solution in water will have the properties of other solutions of iodin made by the aid of iodid, such as a dilution of tincture of iodin or of compound solution of iodin (Lugol’s solution). Hence, the therapeutic claim that B. Iodine “being of a colloidal nature has the advantage of being more readily absorbed and taken up by all cellular structure, thus getting a perfect cellular medication of Iodine,” is unwarranted.

3. The names “B. Iodine” and “B. Oleum Iodine” are not descriptive of the pharmaceutical mixtures to which they are applied.

4. B. Iodine and B. Oleum Iodine are unessential modifications of established articles. B. Iodine has no advantage over tincture of iodin or compound solution of iodin. (As more convenient of transportation, the Medical Department of the U. S. Army supplies its field hospitals with a mixture of iodin and iodid ready for solution in water, either in tablet form or in powdered form in tubes.) Solutions of iodin in liquid petrolatum may be readily prepared (Reports Council Pharm. and Chem., 1917, p. 88).

[Contribution from the A. M. A. Chemical Laboratory]