460 PODOPHYLLTJM 



PODOPHYLLUM 



The dried rhizome and roots of Podophyllum peltatum. 

 Nat. Ord. Berberidacese. 



The Podophyllum, May apple, or mandrake, is a perennial 

 herbaceous plant, plentiful in the Northern States of 

 America, where its subacid fruit is eaten under the name of 

 wild lemons. The root is imported in flattened cylindrical 

 pieces of variable length, one-fifth to one-third of an inch 

 thick ; marked with irregular tuberosities giving off brittle 

 brown rootlets. It is reddish-brown externally, white 

 within, and breaks with a short fracture. The powder 

 has a yellow-grey colour, a disagreeable odour, a bitter, 

 sub-acrid, nauseous taste. 



Podophyllum resin, the active principle, is prepared from 

 a strong tincture, made by exhausting the root with rectified 

 spirit. It is a pale-brown amorphous powder, soluble in 

 alcohol and ammonia, and consisting of an inert, fatty, 

 resinous acid, and two amorphous, bitter, active resins 

 podophyllotoxin and picropodophyllin, the former being the 

 more powerful. 



ACTIONS AND USES. Both root and resin are topical 

 irritants and drastic purgatives. The resin is dissolved by 

 the alkaline secretions of the duodenum ; stimulates 

 glandular secretion and peristalsis, in full doses causing 

 spasm ; carrie.d into the liver, it increases secretion of bile. 

 In dogs and cats, as in human patients, it is an emetic. In 

 horses and dogs repeated doses reduce the force and fre- 

 quency of the pulse, even when the bowels are only slightly 

 affected. It is eliminated by the bowels, in smaller amount 

 by the kidneys. 



GENERAL ACTIONS. The root has long been used by the 

 American Indians as an emetic and anthelmintic. Its 

 actions being supposed to resemble those of calomel, it has 

 been styled vegetable mercury. The eholagogue action of 

 podophyllum was investigated by W. Rutherford. Moder- 

 ate doses introduced into the duodenum, whether of fasting 

 or recently-fed dogs, increased secretion both of the fluid 

 and solid constituents of the bile. Podophyllum directly 



