GINSENG 



475 



ARALIA SPINOSA. Prickly Elder, Angelica Tree, Hercules Club. 

 The bark of Aralia spinosa (Fam. Araliacese), a shrub or tree 

 growing on banks of streams of the eastern United States. The 

 bark is usually employed, although other parts of the plant possess 

 medicinal properties. 



Description. In quills, or transversely curved pieces from 3 to 20 

 cm. in length and 0.5 to 2 cm. in width and bark 1 to 3 mm. in thick- 

 ness; externally grayish-brown, nearly smooth, irregularly wrinkled 

 and having numerous lenticels; inner surface light yellowish-brown, 

 finely reticulate and somewhat crystalline and usually with numerous 

 bright, shining crystals; fracture short-fibrous; inner surface of 



a -i 



FIG. 204. Aralia nudicaulis: Transverse section of rhizome showing cork (fc), 

 hypodermis (h), rosette aggregates (ca) of calcium oxalate, parenchyma (p) 

 containing angular starch grains, oil secretion canals (o), sieve (s), medullary 

 rays (m), cambium (<?), tracheae (t), wood fibers (w). 



thin, easily separable dark brown cork and yellowish-white cortex; 

 odor aromatic, taste bitter and acrid. 



Constituents. Volatile oil having a greenish-yellow color; 

 an acrid resin, soluble in alcohol and insoluble in ether; a saponin 

 (araliin); a tasteless resin; a crystalline substance and chloropnyll. 

 The drug does not contain either tannic acid or an alkaloid. 



Literature. Lilly, Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1882, p. 433. 



GINSENG. Radix Ginseng, Schinsent. The roots, of Panax 

 quinquefolium and P. Ginseng (Fam. Araliacese), perennial herbs, 

 the former growing in rich woods in the eastern United States, 

 and Canada, and the latter indigenous to the mountainous forests of 

 eastern Asia and cultivated in northern China, Korea and Japan. 



