660 SCIENTIFIC AND APPLIED PHARMACOGNOSY 



The root is gathered in the summer or fall, cut transversely into 

 pieces and is either used in the fresh or dried condition. 



Description. In nearly circular disks, from 2.5 to 10 cm. in diam- 

 eter, and from 4 to 18 mm. in thickness; outer surface light yellowish- 

 brown and very roughly wrinkled; the transverse surface, brownish- 

 wfaite or yellowish-white, showing a cortex about 2 mm. in width, a 

 very broad radiate xylem, made up of 4 concentric zones, pith small, 

 frequently depressed and often showing a small group of primary 

 tracheae; fracture short; odor aromatic, when kept in tightly closed 

 containers; taste bitter and acrid. 



Inner Structure. Cork consisting of numerous, tangentially 

 elongated, thin-walled, yellowish cells; cortex made up of thin-walled, 

 tangentiall yelongated, starch-bearing parenchyma; inner bark of 

 narrow strands of leptome and parenchyma, separated by broad 

 medullary rays, among which are distributed secretion cells containing 

 a somewhat granular content and being distinguished by their some- 

 what cylindrical shape ; xylem consisting of radial rows of very wide 

 tracheae, surrounded by parenchyma, and separated by very broad 

 medullary rays; the tracheae are marked by reticulate perforations or 

 simple pores, and vary in width from 0.075 to 0.350 mm.; starch 

 grains from 0.005 to 0.020 mm. in diameter, single or 2- to 6-com- 

 pound, usually having a large central cleft and varying in shape 

 from spheroidal to plano-convex and somewhat polyhedral grains, 

 occasionally altered or swollen, the latter varying from 0.020 to 0.035 

 mm. in diameter. 



Powder. Oyster-white; consisting of numerous starch grains, 

 very wide reticulate tracheae and occasional fragments of cork. The 

 powder is colored purplish and reddish-brown with sulphuric 

 acid. 



Constituents. A brown amorphous glucoside, having a bitter 

 taste and yielding on hydrolysis a resin and dextrose ; an amorphous 

 brownish-yellow alkaloid, possessing an intensely bitter taste; a 

 crystalline phytosterol glucoside, bryonol ; an optically inactive 

 phytosterol; a crystalline neutral substance; a small amount of a 

 volatile oil; a sugar; a mixture of fatty acids; and an enzyme 

 which hydrolyses the above-mentioned amorphous glucosidic con- 

 stituent, and also effects the hydrolysis of amygdalin and salicin. 

 It has been shown that the product designated by previous investi- 

 gators as " bryonin " must have consisted of a complex mixture, and 

 that the purgative property of the root resides chiefly^ in its resinous 

 and alkaloidal constituents. 



Literature. Power and Moore, Jour. Chem. Soc., 1911, p. 937. 



