If the volatile oil be, as authors have advanced, one of the active principles of matico, then the hydrolate must be to a certain extent efficacious. The hemostatic waters of Binelli, Broechieri, Tisseraud, &c., over their property to the volatile oil of turpentine.
The hydrolate may be employed both externally and internally.
EXTRACT OF MATICO.
The one which appears to us the preferable is the hydro-alcoholic. Introduce some rather coarse matico powder into the apparatus for lixiviation, pour on it the alcohol at 56° so as to imbibe all the powder, leave it 24 hours, open the lower cock, pour the same alcohol over the same matico, until the latter is exhausted, and then evaporate the liquid in the vapour bath, till it is brought to the consistence of an extract. The product is black, with a marked odor of matico, and a bitter taste. It is only partially soluble, either in alcohol or water.
The extract of matico may be used internally in the form of pills, lozenges, syrup and electuary, and externally, dissolved or softened in the form of plasters, embrocations, plugs, lavements and injections.
Matico furnishes about 1⁄4 of its weight of the hydro-alcoholic extract.
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SYRUP OF MATICO.
| Bruised matico, | 100 parts. |
| Water, | 1,000 parts. |
Distil till you obtain 100 parts. Draw off the residue from the retort, press the matico, add to the product 700 parts of sugar; mix it so as to have by the addition of the hydrolate a syrup of ordinary consistence; filter it by Demarest’s method.