198 SCIENTIFIC AND APPLIED PHARMACOGNOSY 



hairs and numerous cells that are filled with microcrystals of calcium 

 oxalate. The plant yields 0.33 per cent of a volatile oil having a 

 strong aromatic odor and a bitter, pungent taste. The oil is used 

 in Brazil as a popular anthelmintic. The leaves of this plant yield 

 a volatile oil having a repulsive, narcotic odor resembling trimethyl- 

 amine. 



PHYTOLACCACE^;, OR POKEWEED FAMILY 



The family includes herbs, shrubs and trees and of which there are 

 less than 100 species. They are for the most part indigenous to 

 tropical and sub-tropical America and Africa, being represented in 

 the United States by one genus, Phytolacca. The inner morphology 

 is quite distinctive. Calcium oxalate usually occurs in the form of 

 raphides and styloids, also occasionally in microcrystals. In the 

 stem, the pericycle is a continuous sclerenchymatous sheath and the 

 vascular bundles are of the medullary type, i.e., separated by broad 

 medullary rays. The structure of the root is anomalous, consisting 

 of the formation of successive secondary rings of vascular bundles. 

 The hairs are of the simple, uniseriate type. Neither glandular 

 hairs nor special secretory cells occur in plants of this family. 



PHYTOLACCA. Poke Root. The root of Phytolacca decandra 

 (Fam. Phytolaccaceae), a perennial herb (Fig. 85) indigenous to 

 eastern North America, and naturalized in the West Indies and 

 southern Europe. The root is collected in autumn and, after removal 

 of the rootlets, cut into transverse and longitudinal pieces and dried. 



Description. Fusiform or nearly cylindrical, tapering, usually 

 in longitudinal ribbon-like slices, 8 to 16 cm. in length, 5 to 15 mm. 

 in diameter, 2 to 10 mm. in thickness; externally, bark dark brown, 

 more or less wrinkled ; fracture fibrous, tough ; internally light brown, 

 characterized by alternating zones of collateral fibrovascular bun- 

 dles and parenchyma formed by secondary cambiums; odor slight; 

 taste acrid. 



Inner Structure. See Kraemer's "Applied and Economic Bot- 

 any," p. 318. 



Powder. Dark yellow; sternutatory; fragments with long 

 sclerenchymatous fibers and large scalariform tracheae; starch 

 grains 0.007 to 0.020 mm. in diameter; calcium oxalate in raphides 

 0.030 mm. in length or in sphenoid microcrystals. 



Constituents. A bitter, acrid glucoside resembling saponin; 

 a crystalline alkaloid phytolaccine, which is soluble in alcohol and 

 sparingly soluble in water; sugars 10 per cent; starch 10 per cent; 



