CIMICIFUGA 219 



2 dm. and a diameter of 4 mm.; light yellowish-brown to grayish- 

 brown, longitudinally wrinkled and marked by numerous branch, 

 leaf or flower bases. 



.Inner Structure. See Kraemer's Applied and Economic Botany, 

 p. 534. 



Powder. Dark yellowish-green; numerous fragments showing 

 wavy epidermal cells and elliptical stomata; tracheae either close 

 annular, spiral or with simple pores; bast fibers with strongly 

 thickened, lignified and porous walls; non-glandular hairs few, uni- 

 cellular, more or less curved and papillose. Fragments" of the blue 

 sepals are colored purplish-red upon the addition of dilute hydro- 

 chloric acid, and bright green upon the addition of solutions of the 

 alkalies. 



Constituents. Aconitine from 0.15 to 0.3 per cent; also aconitic 

 acid, tannic acid, inosit and sugar. The yield of ash is from 15 to 

 20 per cent. 



CIMICIFUGA. Black Snakeroot. Black Cohosh. The dried 

 rhizome and roots of Cimicifuga racemosa (Fam. Ranunculacese), 

 a perennial herb, indigenous to Asia, eastern Europe and North 

 America. The drug is collected in autumn, the United States fur- 

 nishing the principal supply. 



Description. Rhizome horizontal, with numerous upright or 

 curved branches and few roots, 2 to 15 cm. in length, 1 to 2.5 cm. 

 in diameter; externally dark brown, slightly annulate from circular 

 scars of bud-scales, the upper surface with buds, stem-scars and 

 stem-remnants, under and side portions with numerous root-scars 

 and few roots; fracture horny; internally, bark dark green, about 

 1 mm. in thickness, wood dark brown, 4 to 5 mm. in thickness, 

 distinctly radiate; pith 3 to 5 mm. in diameter; odor slight; taste 

 bitter and acrid. 



Roots brittle, nearly cylindrical or obtusely quadrangular; 

 externally dark brown, longitudinally wrinkled, 3 to 12 cm. in 

 length, 1 to 2 mm. in diameter; fracture short; internally, bark 

 dark brown, 0.2 to 0.4 mm. in thickness, wood light brown, usually 

 four-rayed. 



Inner Structure. An epidermal layer composed of yellowish- 

 brown cells with suberized walls; a cortex of starch-bearing paren- 

 chyma cells; fibrovascular bundles, collateral, the xylem con- 

 sisting of tracheae, with bordered pores, and resembling tracheids 

 in that the ends are rather acute; wood-fibers numerous, thin-walled, 

 strongly lignified and with simple, oblique pores; the bundles sep- 

 arated by starch-bearing parenchyma strands from 5 to 30 cells 



