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Potassium Sulphate, Tartar Vitriolate

Kali Sulphuricum, Arcanum Duplicatum, Sal Polycrestum; Specificum purgans, Nitrum fixum: Panacea holsatica
Minerological name:
Potassium Sulphate. K2SO4

Parts used:
Prepared salt

Temperature & Taste:
Cold, dry.

Uses:
1. Clears Heat, Resists Poison:
-Burning Fever, Putrid Fever, Chronic Fever, Fever from Phlegm or Melancholy;
-Measles and other Spotted Fevers; Plague
-chronic Heat diseases, Consumption, Hectic Fever, Cachexia

2. Moves the Bowels, Opens Obstructions:
-Constipation
-obstruction of the Liver, Spleen, Bowels and Uterus; Liver sluggishness, biliousness
-it was commended for Melancholy and Madness
-Headache, Migraine, Paralysis, Apoplexy, Migraines, Vertigo, Epilepsy, Lethargy
-also promotes Menstruation
-adjunct for Worms

3. Clears Phlegm and Heat:
-thick mucous obstructing the Lungs
-Cough, Asthma, Pleurisy
-Scrofula, Fibroid Tumors

4. Clears Damp, Promote Urine:
-Edema, fluid retention
-Gravel, Stones
-tartarous accumulations, such as the nodes of arthritic joints; Gout, Rheumatism
-Jaundice

5. Benefits Digestion:
-causes good digestion, strengthens Stomach, increases Appetite

6. Externally:
i. Gangrene, rotten flesh, mouth ulcers, dissolve Tartar Vitriolate in wine with a little brandy and use topically.


Dose:
Taken with Purgatives, it acts as a purgative; taken with Diuretics, it promotes Urine; with emmenagogues to promote Menstruation; with diaphoretics to promote sweat.
Traditional dose: ½ scruple (650mg)–½ dram (2 grams); Hartman said 6–15 grains (400mg–1 gram), up to 20 grains (1300mg), 2, 3, or 4 times daily.
1–3 grams as an aperient; 10–20 grams as a purgative.

Main Combinations:
1. Edema
i. dissolve Tartar Vitriolate in wine of Elecampane
ii. Tartar Vitriolate, Celery seed, Fennel seed
iii. Tartar Vitriolate (2 drams), powdered Egg shell (1 ½ drams), Parsley seed (½ dram)
2. Stones:
i. dissolve Tartar Vitriolate in white wine
ii. Tartar Vitriolate with Nettle seed, Radish seed, Parsley seed
3. To purge:
i. Tartar Vitriolate with Syrup of Rose Solutive
ii. Tartar Vitriolate with Syrup of Rhubarb or Syrup of Senna
iii. Tartar Vitriolate, Sulphur (½ oz. each), Confection of Senna (2 oz.), Oil of Aniseed (20 drops). Mix. Dose: 1–2 drams.
4. Fevers:
i. Tartar Vitriolate with Oxymel
ii. Tartar Vitriolate with Cinchona
iii. to promote Sweat in fever, take Tartar Vitriolate in Blessed Thistle Water.
iv. from Melancholy, take Tartar Vitriolate in Borage Water.
v. Salts of Blessed Thistle, Salts of Wormwood (15 grains each), Tartar Vitriolate (½ scruple), Mix; take with wine
vi. All Fevers, Quotidian, Tertian, Quartan Fever, Tartar Vitriolate with Burnt Deer horn, Calamus root, Clove, Camphor, the Salts of Centaury, of Blessed Thistle, and of Wormwood
5. Amenorrhea:
i. Tartar Vitriolate in Pennyroyal water
ii. Tartar Vitriolate with Motherwort, Cinnamon
iii. Savin, Ginger (1 dram each), Potassium sulphate (2 drams). Make 6 doses.
6. Obstructions:
i. and for Melancholy, Cream of Tartar (½–1 dram), Tartar Vitriolate (1 scruple–½ dram); taken in broth or wine.
ii. Tartar Vitriolate taken in Electuary of Senna
iii. to purge Bile and all thick Humors, used for Madness, Melancholy, Leprosy, Cancer, Venereal Diseases, and to cleanse the blood of the whole body: Aloe (3 drams), Gum Ammoniac dissolved in Vinegar of Squill (1½ oz.), Tartar Vitriolate (½ dram). Form Troches. Dose: 1 scruple–1 dram, taken in the morning fasting, or before dinner. (as in Tartar Pills from the Royal Pharmacopeia ... of France, Moses Charras, 1678)
iv. Obstructions in the Veins, Tartar Vitriolate in Decoction of Cinnamon and Raisin
v. Columbine seed (6 drams), Saffron (1 dram), Tartar Vitriolate (½ dram). Form 7 doses. (Gazophylacium Medico-Physicum, Woyts, 1746)
7. Tumor or Hardness of the Liver:
i. Tartar Vitriolate in Decoction of Cinnamon and Raisin
ii. if the Blood is in poor state, add Agrimony to the above
iii. if there is windiness, decoct Aniseed, Fennel seed, Caraway seed and add Tartar Vitriolate
iv. from melancholy, with Agrimony, Fumitory, Dodder, Senna
8. Phlegm obstructing the Lungs, Tartar Vitriolate with Orris root (and a little Musk) (as in 'A Body without a Soul', from Pharmacopoeia Bateana)
9. Scrofula:
i. Tartar Vitriolate with Figwort root
ii. Tartar Vitriolate with Sarsaparilla, Burdock root
iii. Tartar Vitriolate with Cream of Tartar, Sulphur, Saltpeter, Licorice
iv. Tartar Vitriolate with Arum root, Cream of Tartar, Iron sulphate, Earthworms (A Complete English Dispensatory, John Quincy, 1782)
v. Burnt Sponge (9 oz.), Potassium Sulphate (2 oz.), Swallow-wort root (1 oz.), Cinnamon (2 drams). Mix. Dose: 1–2 scruples. (Pharmacopoeia Wirtembergica, 1798)
10. Spasms and Convulsions, Tartar Vitriolate with Saltpeter (2 oz. each), Cinnabar (1½ drams) (Dispensatorium Pharmaceuticum Universale, 1764
11. Hemorrhoids: Manna (2 oz.), Potassium sulphate, Potassium nitrate, Sulphur (2 drams each), Honey (sufficient to make an Electuary. (Formulaire Magistral et Memorial Pharmaceutique, 1823)

Cautions:
1. Avoid overdose or long-term use.
2. Not used in those with Diarrhea.

Drug Interactions:
Note that a large number of drugs can interfere with Potassium Sulphate, mainly affecting its excretion. This can be potentially harmful if excess Potassium builds up in the system. This is only relevant if full doses are taken over an extended period of time.
1. Do not use while taking potassium sparing diuretics or ACE inhibitors. A dangerous combination is the administration of Potassium salts along with potassium sparing Diuretics which can quickly raise Potassium levels to dangerous levels.
2. A number of medications can reduce excretion of Potassium Sulphate, thereby potentially leading to hyperkalemia. These include Acetaminophen, Acyclovir, Amoxicillin, Arsenic trioxide, Bacitracin, Chondroitin, Chromium, Clove oil, Colchicine etc.
3. Efficacy of Potassium sulfate can be decreased when used with Aluminium, Atropine, Codeine
4. Potassium Sulphate may increase the hyperkalemic activity of Acebutolol
5. Ammonium chloride may increase the hyperkalemic activity of Potassium Sulphate

Main Preparations used:

Preparation of Tartar Vitriolate
1.  ‘Take the purest Salt of Tartar as much as you please, or if you please, instead thereof Oil of Tartar per deliquium; affuse thereon the best Oil of Vitriol a sufficient quantity, viz. so much till you see the Ebullition ceases, which you may know by stirring the matter; then gently evaporate away the Humidity to dryness, continually stirring of it in the evaporation with a wooden Spatula, but especially when it begins to grow dry, so will you have a most pure white Salt, which keep for use’.

2.  ‘Salt of Tartar most white, dissolved, filtered and coagulated often, according to Chemical Art, with Water of Agrimony; for Example thus: 4 oz. of this dissolve it in a cellar, upon a Marble into an Oil. Having the Oil pure, take Oil of Vitriol exceedingly well rectified 2 oz., and in a large glass instill it drop by drop upon Oil of Tartar: then make a most white coagulum, draw off the supernating humidity with gentle heat to the consistency of a Salt, so thou has fixed, white Vitriolate Tartar’. (Royal Chemistry, London, 1670)

NOTE:
i) If too much Oil of Vitriol is added the Salt will become very sharp, but not purge; if correctly prepared, it is slightly nauseating in taste, and can purge 4 ways: Vomit, Stool, Urine and Sweat.
ii) The Oil of Vitriol must be dropped in very slowly; drop by drop.
iii) If wanted, one part of the Salt or Liquor of Coral may be added to 2 parts of the Oil of Tartar before the Vitriol is introduced.
iv) May also be prepared by the affusion of Spirits of Nitre.
v) After the same manner may Lapis Prunellae be Vitriolated, which has the same properties, virtues and dosage as this.

USES:
i) They both promote digestion, strengthen the Stomach, and cause a good appetite.
ii) They dissolve Tartar in the body, and opens all Obstructions whatsoever, but especially those of the Stomach, Lungs, Liver, Bowels, Kidneys, Bladder, and Womb. Used to clear ‘slimy, tenacious and viscous
Humours’. It purges and removes all obstructions, taken with Cathartics, or given in Solutive Syrup of Roses, or Violets.
iii) They open the Urinary passages to a wonder, promote Urine in Dropsy, dissolve the Stone, and ‘all Tartarous coagulations in the body’. Also Jaundice. (For the stone, it was given in certain distilled waters, or white wine; Dropsy may be treated by taking it in 2 oz. of Wine of Elecampane)
iv) Good for Coughs, Asthmas, Pleurisy
v) Useful for Gout, Rheumatism, Scrofula, Jaundice, and Dysentery;
vi) used also for Headache, Migraine, Palsy, Apoplexy, Migraines, Vertigo, Epilepsy, Carus, Lethargy and Melancholy. (Taken in white wine every morning for many days)
vii) They are wonderful against infection of the Plague, ‘being scarcely inferior to any other thing now used’; also prevalent against all burning, malign and pestilental Fevers including Measles, Small Pox, Spotted Fevers etc. They resist putrefaction, allay heat and inflammation, and cure Putrid Fevers and the Sweating Sickness. Best for Chronic fevers, or Fevers from Melancholy or Phlegm (taken in Oxymel or Borage water); To promote sweat, it is given in Wine, or Carduus Water.
viii) They promote stools and kill worms.
ix) They purify the Blood, renovate the whole Man and remove the Malignity of Humors; used for Consumption, Hectic Fever, and Cachexia.
x) Also largely recommended for Scirrhus (Fibroid) Tumours and other chronic obstructions and Tumours.
xi) Suppression of Menstruation; give it in wine, syrup or water of Pennyroyal, Motherwort, or Betony.
xii) In contractures and Obstructions of the Veins taking their beginning from Tartar it is excellent being taken with Decoction of Cinnamon and Raisins.
xiii) A lotion made by dissolving a little of that prepared with Spirits of Nitre in Wine with a little Brandy is a good application to Gangrenes, and to take away rotten flesh, warts, and ulcers of the Mouth, Throat and other parts.
Dose: 6–15 grains, and up to 20 in Water, syrup or Wine, 2, 3 or 4 times a day (Royal Chemistry, London 1670)