2 RANUNGULACE^. 



According to the same authority the hellebores differ extremely in 

 their medicinal activity. The most potent is H. or'ientalis Lam. ; then 

 follow H. viridis L. and H. fontidus L. (natives of Britain), and H. 

 jyurjyurascens Waldst. et Kit., a Hungarian species, while H. niger is 

 the weakest of all.^ 



Description — Black Hellebore produces a knotty, fleshy, brittle 

 rhizome which creeps and branches slowly, forming in the course of 

 years an intangled, interlacing mass, throwing out an abundance of 

 stout, straight roots. Both rhizome and roots are of a blackish brown, 

 but the younger roots are of lighter tint and are covered with a short 

 woolly tomentum. 



In commerce the rhizome is found with the roots more or less broken 

 off" and detached. It is in very knotty irregular pieces, 1 to 2 or 3 

 inches long and about ^ to ^ of an inch in diameter, internally whitish 

 and of a horny texture. If cut transversely (especially after maceration), 

 it shows a circle of white woody wedges, 8 to 12 in number, surrounded 

 by a thick bark. The roots are unbranched, scarcely yV of an inch in 

 diameter. The younger, when broken across, exhibit a thick bark 

 encircling a simple woody cord ; in the older this cord tends to divide 

 into converging wedges which present a stellate appearance, though 

 not so distinctly as in Adcva. The drug when cut or broken has a 

 slight odour like that of senega. Its taste is bitterish and slightly acrid. 



Microscopic Structure — The cortical pai^t both of the rhizome and 

 the rootlets exhibits no distinct medullary rays. In the rootlets the 

 woody centre is comparatively small and enclosed by a narrow zone 

 somewhat as in sarsaparilla. A distinct pith occurs in the rhizome but 

 not always in the rootlets, their woody column forming one solid bundle 

 or being divided into several. The tissue contains small starch granules 

 and drops of fatty oil. 



Chemical Composition — The earlier investigations of Black Helle- 

 bore by Gmelin, and Feneulle and Capron, and of Riegel indicated only 

 the presence of the more usual constituents of plants. 



Bastick, on the other hand, in 1852 obtained from the root a peculiar, 

 non-volatile, crystalline, chemically-indifferent substance which he 

 named Hellehorin. It is stated to have a bitter taste and to produce 

 in addition a tingling sensation on the tongue ; to be slightly soluble in 

 water, more so in ether, and to dissolve freely in alcohol. 



Marme and A. Husemann extracted helleborin (1864) by treating 

 with hot water the green fatty matter which is dissolved out of the 

 root by boiling alcohol. After recrystallization from alcohol, it is 

 obtainable in shining, colourless needles, having the composition 

 Q36JJ42Q6 j^ jg stated to be highly narcotic. Helleborin appears to be 

 more abundant in H. viridis (especially in the older roots) than in H. 

 niger, and yet to be obtainable only to the extent of 0*4 per mille. 

 When it is boiled with dilute sulphuric acid, or still better with solution 

 of zinc chloride, it is converted into sugar and HeUeboresin, C^'^H^O*. 



Marme and Husemann succeeded in isolating other crystallized 

 principles from the leaves and roots of H. niger and H. viiidis, by 

 precipitation with phospho-molybdic acid. They obtained firstly a 



^ Between purpurascens and nl/jer, Schroff Boissier holds to be simply R. orientalis 

 places L, pontictia A. Br., a plant which Lam. 



