236 SCIENTIFIC AND APPLIED PHARMACOGNOSY 



The alkaloid berberine is also found in Argemone mexicana 

 (Fam. Papaveracese) and in the following members of the Ranun- 

 culacese: Hydrastis canadensis, Coptis trifolia and Xanthorrhiza 

 apiifolia. 



CAULOPHYLLUM. Blue Cohosh. The dried rhizome and roots 

 of Caulophyllum thalictroides (Fam. Berberidacese), a perennial 

 herb indigenous to the eastern United States and producing a thick 

 rhizome and large ternately compound leaves. 



Description. Consisting of rhizomes and numerous long, wiry, 

 matted roots. Rhizome horizontal, with a few upright branches 

 from 5 to 25 cm. in length and from 4 to 16 mm. in thickness; exter- 

 nally grayish-brown to dark reddish-brown, slightly annulate from 

 the leaf scars, the upper surface with numerous depressed scars or 

 short stem bases; under and lateral portions with numerous grayish- 

 brown or yellowish-brown branching roots; fracture short, fibrous; 

 inner surface light grayish-brown, having a waxy luster and showing 

 a thin bark with numerous small wood wedges and a large pith; 

 odor slight, sternutatory; taste bitter and acrid. Roots wiry, much 

 branched, nearly cylindrical, externally yellowish-brown to dark 

 brown, longitudinally wrinkled, attaining a length of 3.5 dm., and 

 having a diameter of 1 to 3 mm.; fracture of bark short, wood tough; 

 internally grayish-white consisting of a thick bark composed of 

 starch-bearing parenchyma, and a 4-rayed xylem. 



Inner Structure. See Fig. 106. 



Powder. Light brown; starch grains numerous from 0.003 to 

 0.016 mm. in diameter, mostly single, somewhat spheroidal in shape; 

 fragments of cork composed of cells about 0.050 mm. in diameter 

 and having yellowish-brown walls; tracheae from 0.025 to 0.050 mm. 

 in width, with bordered pores; sclerenchymatous fibers with strongly 

 lignified walls; tracheids with bordered pores, and fragments of 

 starch-bearing parenchymatous tissue. Newcomb. 



Constituents. A crystalline alkaloid, Methylcytisine (caul- 

 ophylline); a crystalline glucoside, Caulosaponin (leontin); a 

 second saponin-like glucoside, Caulophyllosaponin; a phytosterol 

 glucoside, to which the name Citrullol has been applied; a phy- 

 tosterol; a volatile oil; an enzyme; a reducing sugar; a resinous 

 substance, and a mixture of fatty acids. 



Literature. Holm, Merck's Report, 1907, p. 94; Power and 

 Salway, Jour. Chem. Soc., 1913, p. 191. 



