[369] Year Book of Pharmacy, 1876.
Water.—Highest, 31·2; lowest, 18·4; mean, 22·4 per cent.
Insoluble Residue.—Highest, 47·9; lowest, 25·45; mean, 32·48 per cent.
Aqueous Extract.—Highest, 56·15; lowest, 20·90; mean, 45·90 per cent.
Crude Morphine (containing about 7⁄10 of pure morphine).—Highest, 12·30; lowest, 6·76; mean, 9·92 per cent., which equals 12·3 per cent. of the dried drug.
Persian Opium, examined in the same way, varied in crude morphine from 2·1 to 8·5 per cent.; Malwa, from 5·88 to 7·30. In 18 samples of different kinds of opium, the mean percentage of crude morphine was 8·88 per cent. (11 per cent. of the dried opium). According to Guibourt, Smyrna opium, dried at 100°, yields 11·7 to 21·46 per cent., the mean being 12 to 14 per cent.; Egyptian, from 5·8 to 12 per cent.; Persian, 11·37 per cent. In East Indian Patna opium, for medical use, he found 7·72; in a sample used for smoking, 5·27 per cent.; in Algerian opium, 12·1 per cent.; in French opium, 14·8 to 22·9 per cent.
§ 345. Action of Solvents on Opium.—The action of various solvents on opium has been more especially studied by several scientists who are engaged in the extraction of the alkaloids.
Water dissolves nearly everything except resin, caoutchouc, and woody fibre. Free morphine would be left insoluble; but it seems always to be combined with meconic and acetic acids. The solubility of free narcotine in water is extremely small.