Ergot of rye deteriorates greatly by age, being subject to the attacks of a description of acarus resembling the cheese mite, but much smaller, which destroys the whole of the internal portion of the grain, leaving nothing but the shell, and a considerable quantity of excrementitious matter. To prevent this the ergot should be well dried, and then placed in bottles or tin canisters, and closely preserved from the air. The addition of a few cloves, or drops of the oil of cloves, or strong acetic
acid, or a little camphor, or camphorated spirit of wine, will preserve this substance for years in close vessels. M. Martin proposes to steep the dry ergot in strong mucilage, and then to dry it on a sheet of white iron. This operation he repeats once or oftener, and finally preserves the prepared and thoroughly dried ergot in a well-corked glass flask. (‘Jour. de Chimie Méd.’) The wholesale druggists generally keep it in well-covered tin canisters or tin boxes.
H. Ducros (‘Zeitschr. des Oesterr. Apoth. Ver.,’ 1876-8), on the strength of many years’ experience, recommends powdered wood-charcoal for the preservation of ergot of rye.
The ergot is placed in a wide-mouth stoppered bottle, and covered with a thick layer of the powdered charcoal. Whenever it is required for use some of the ergot is transferred to a piece of paper, and freed from the adhering charcoal by blowing and rubbing. What is not required is returned to the bottle.
N. B. Gionovié (‘Zeitschr. des Oesterr. Apoth. Ver.,’ 1876, 126) states he has used the following process with the best success. A small quantity of ether is dropped on the ergot contained in a bottle, and the latter closed with a well-fitting stopper. The addition of ether is repeated every time the bottle is opened.
Ergot of rye is much used to restrain uterine hæmorrhage, and to accelerate the contraction of the uterus in protracted labour. It is also much used as an emmenagogue.—Dose. To facilitate labour, 20 to 30 gr., either in powder or made into an infusion; repeated at intervals of 20 or 30 minutes until 3 or 4 scruples have been taken. In other cases (leucorrhœa, hæmorrhages, &c.) the dose is 5 to 12 gr., three times daily, for a period not longer than a week or ten days at a time.
M. Tancret states that he has succeeded in obtaining an alkaloid from ergot of rye, which he names ergotinine. The isolation of ergotinine is said to be attended with great difficulty, owing to its great tendency to undergo spontaneous changes, a short contact with the air being sufficient to decompose it; a circumstance which may perhaps help to explain the rapid change that the powder ergot experiences. Professor Dragendorff, however, refuses to admit that ergotinine is the active principle of ergot, or that it is a distinct chemical substance. He ascribes the therapeutic power of the drug mainly to sclerotic acid, which body, after various unsuccessful attempts, he has obtained from ergot, with certain other determinate compounds, by the following process:—“Very finely powdered ergot is exhausted with distilled water, the solution concentrated in vacuo, and the residuary liquid mixed with an equal volume of 95 per cent. alcohol. This causes the precipitation of a peculiarly shiny substance (scleromucin), together with a portion of the salts, and the greater part of the suspended fatty matter. The mixture having been allowed to stand on ice for twenty-four to forty-eight hours, it is filtered, and the filtrate mixed with a further quantity of 95 per cent. alcohol, sufficient to precipitate all the sclerotic acid in combination with the bases (chiefly as calcium sclerotate). The separation of the precipitate is promoted as before, by placing the mixture on ice for some days. This causes the deposited mass, which has a brownish colour, to adhere firmly to the walls of the vessel, so as to permit the supernatant liquid to be easily poured off. The precipitate is kneaded with alcohol of 80 per cent., and immediately thereafter dissolved in a sufficient quantity of 40 per cent. alcohol, when the remainder of the scleromucin and another large portion of the foreign salts are left behind. The filtered liquid is now mixed with absolute alcohol, whereby sclerotic acid is precipitated in conjunction with certain bases and other substances. The impure product, when carefully dried over sulphuric acid, was found on analysis to contain 8·5 per cent. of potassium, about 0·36 per cent. of calcium, 4·3 per cent. of sodium, 2·74 per cent. of phosphoric acid, or altogether 12·9 per cent. of ash.
“The greater part of these admixtures may be removed, and the sclerotic acid obtained free, by adding before the final precipitation with absolute alcohol a considerable quantity of hydrochloric acid (for every 100 c. c. of solution 5-6 gm. of the acid, sp. gr. 1·100), allowing to stand at ordinary temperature for a few hours, and then proceeding to precipitate. In this manner the amount of ash may be brought down to 3 per cent., and by repeated solution, addition of acid, and precipitation, it may further be reduced to less than 2 per cent. or 3 per cent. A more complete purification is difficult and hazardous, because every addition of hydrochloric acid causes the decomposition of a small quantity of sclerotic acid, while at the same time a portion of the latter is lost by remaining in solution.
“The resulting product, although not chemically pure, is nevertheless physiologically pure, as it always produces constant and identical results, no matter from what sample of (good) ergot it was obtained.
“Good ergot contains about 4 to 4·5 per cent. of the acid, although samples are met with which contain scarcely 1·5 to 2 per cent.”[279]