Tincture - Examples of Tinctures

Examples of Tinctures

Some examples that were formerly common in medicine include:

• Tincture of Cannabis sativa
• Tincture of Benzoin
• Tincture of cantharides
• Tincture of Castoreum
• Tincture of ferric citrochloride, a chelate of citric acid and Iron(III) chloride
• Tincture of green soap, which classically contains lavender oil
• Tincture of guaiac gum
• Tincture of iodine
• Tincture of opium, known as (laudanum)
• Camphorated opium tincture (paregoric)
• Tincture of Pennyroyal
• Warburg's Tincture, also known as Tinctura Antiperiodica or Antiperiodic Tincture, a 19th century antipyretic

Examples of spirits include:

• Spirit of ammonia (also called spirits of hartshorn)
• Spirit of camphor
• Spirit of ether, a solution of diethyl ether in alcohol
• "Spirit of Mindererus", ammonium acetate in alcohol
• "Spirit of nitre" is not a spirit in this sense, but an old name for nitric acid (but "sweet spirit of nitre" was ethyl nitrite)
• Similarly "spirit(s) of salt" actually meant hydrochloric acid. The concentrated, fuming, 35% acid is still sold under this name in the UK, for use as a drain-cleaning fluid.
• "Spirit of vinegar" is an antiquated term for glacial acetic acid
• "Spirit of vitriol" is an antiquated term for sulfuric acid
• "Spirit of wine" or "spirits of wine" is an old term for alcohol (especially food grade alcohol derived from the distillation of wine)
• "Spirit of wood" referred to methanol, often derived from the destructive distillation of wood