Wood Vinegar

Wood vinegar represents one of the products of dry distillation of wood. The condensed products of dry distillation of wood in the refrigerator separate into two layers upon standing: the lower layer is a thick substance consisting of wood tar, and the upper layer is the aqueous part of the distillate, which is raw wood vinegar, Acetum pyrolignosum crudum (Fig. VII). Wood vinegar is a dark brown liquid with a bitter and sour taste and a smell of vinegar and tar, containing 6-6.6% acetic acid with impurities of other unsaturated acids, methyl alcohol, acetone, and components of tar. Purified wood vinegar, Acet. pyrolign. rectificatum, is a colorless or yellowish transparent liquid with a bitter and sour odor and taste, containing about 5% acetic acid and fewer homologs of acetic acid and components of tar than raw wood vinegar. In medical practice, the purified preparation is mainly used diluted with water (1-5:100) for mouth and throat gargles and for vaginal douches as an antiseptic, as well as for dressing purulent wounds (solution 10.0-20.0:100.0). Raw wood vinegar acts more strongly than purified and is mainly used in veterinary practice for diseases of the hooves, foot-and-mouth disease, and scabies. Irrigal tablets, a preparation consisting of wood vinegar, dehydrated sodium acetate, traces of creosote, and starch. It is used in the same way as wood vinegar for vaginal catarrhs for douches with 1-2 tablets per 1 liter of water, which corresponds to 1.5-2% wood vinegar.