RHIZOMA PODOPHYLLL 37 



have been long known to the Indians of North America. The plant 

 was figured in 1731 by Catesby^ who remarks that its root is an 

 excel^nt emetic. Its cathartic properties were noticed by Schupf=^ 

 and Barton^ and have been commented upon by many subsequent 

 writers. In 1820, podophylhim was introduced into the United States 



•macopod 



Hod 



bon puDnsiiecl in 1832 in the Journal of the Philadelphia Colleqc of 

 i'harmacy the fii-st attempt of a chemical examination of tlie 

 rhizome, which now furnishes one of the most popular purgatives, the 

 so-called Podophyllin, manufactured on a large scale at Cincinnati 

 and m other places in America, as well as in Eno-land. 



Description— The drug consists of tlie rhizome and rootlets. The 

 former creeps to a length of several feet, but as imported is mostly in 

 somewhat flattened pieces of 1 to 8 inches in length and 2 to 4 lines in 

 longest diameter ; it is marked by knotty joints showing a depressed 

 scar at intervals of a few inches which marks the place of a fallen 

 stem. Each joint is in fact the growth of one year, the tei-minal bud 

 being enclosed in papery brownish sheaths. Sometimes the knots 

 produce one, two, or even three lateral buds and the rhozime is bi- or 

 tn-furcate. The reddish-brown or grey surface is obscurely marked 

 at intervals by oblique wrinkles indicating the former attachment of 

 rudimentary leaves. The rootlets are about i a line thick and arise 

 trom below the knots and adjacent parts of the rhizome, the internodal 

 space being bare. They are brittle, easily detached, and commonly of 

 a paler colour. The rhizome is mostly smooth, but some of the 

 branched pieces are deeply furrowed. Both rootstock and rootlets 

 have a short, smooth, mealy fracture ; the transverse section is white, 

 exhibiting only an extremely small corky layer and a thin simple 

 circle of about 20 to 40 yellow, vascular bundles, enclosing a central 

 pith which m the larger pieces is often 2 lines in diameter. 



Ihe drug has a heavy narcotic, disagreeable odour, and a bitter, acrid, 

 nauseous taste. 



croscopic Structure — The vascular bundles are composed of 



M 



intermixed 



From 



each bundle a narrow-tissued, wedge- or crescent-shaped liber-bundle 

 Projects^a little into the cortical layer. This, as well as the pith, exhibits 

 ^arge thm-walled cells. The rootlets are as usual of a different 



ti ucture, their central part consisting of one group of vascular bundles 

 more or less scattered.' The parenchymatous cells of the drug are 



oaded with starch granules : some also contain stellate tufts of oxalate 



of calcium. 



mical 



- Composition — The active principles of podophyllum 



exist m the resin, which according to Squibb" is best prepared by the 

 I locess termed re-percolation. The powdered drug is exhausted by 



cohol which is made to percolate through successive portions. Tlio 



» *f"!: ^^'^^-Jif Carolina, i. tab. 24. * Vol. iii. 273. 



p. 86. 



mrr 



Figured 



troons fiatt- ^ ■ "^^^ physician to German Phar. Assoc, 1877. 420—433. 

 » Collf^:l^° T J^"^ ^^ Independence. « A mcrican Journ. of Pharm. x vi. ( 1 8(58) 



Med. of 1—10. 



798, 31. 



