Lozenges Lozenges or troches are small, dry, solid plant powders combined with sugar and mucilage (marshmallow root, slippery elm bark, comfrey root, or gum mucilage such as gum tragacanth the best mucilage).
Spread herb powder with sugar and form a paste. Spread marble slab with sugar, and roll paste into a flat cake. Cover top layer with sugar and cornstarch. Divide into small cakes with a knife. Place the cakes on white paper, and expose to the
air for twelve hours.
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Next, place in dry, airy area. When the small lozenges are perfectly dry, place on a sieve to separate the sugar and starch. Enclose them
in bottles.
Oil of Peppermint Lozenges
12 drops oil of peppermint 2 ounces refined sugar Enough mucilage of tragacanth to help make it into a paste
Rub the oil of peppermint with the sugar until they are thoroughly mixed; then form a mass with the mucilage of tragacanth. Roll flat. Cut into lozenges or troches.
To Make Mucilage of Tragacanth
1 ounce tragacanth
I pint boiling water
Soak the tragacanth and stir for twenty four hours. Beat the mixture into uniform consistency, and force through a muslin strainer. The mixture must be beaten, as only part of
tragacanth is soluble in water and, thus, doesn't form a uniform solution.
When kept too long, it can decompose.
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