IG RANUNCULACE^. 



History — The plant was first made known by Plukenet in 1696 as 

 Cliristoplioriana Canadensis oxicemosa. It was recommended in 1743 

 by Golden ^ and named in 1749 by Linnaeus in his Materia Medica as 

 Actcea racemis longissimis. In 1823 it was introduced into medical 

 practice in America by Garden; it began to be used in England about 

 the year I860.' 



Description — The drug consists of a very short, knotty, branching 

 rhizome, ^ an inch or more thick, having, in one direction, the remains 

 of several stout aerial stems, and in the other, numerous brittle, wiry 

 roots, ^V ^'^ tV oi ^^ ii^ch in diameter, emitting rootlets still smaller. 

 The rhizome is of somewhat flattened cylindrical form, distinctly 

 marked at intervals with the scars of fallen leaves. A transverse 

 section exhibits in the centre a horny whitish pith, round which are a 

 number of rather coarse, irregular woody rays, and outside them a hard, 

 thickish bark. The larger roots when broken display a thick cortical 

 layer, the space within which contains converging wedges of open 

 woody tissue 3 to 5 in number forming a star or cross, — a beautiful and 

 characteiistic structure easily observed with a lens. The drug is of a 

 dark blackish brown ; it has a bitter, rather acrid and astringent taste, 

 and a heavy narcotic smell. 



Microscopic Structure — The most striking character is afforded 

 by the rootlets, which on a transverse section display a central woody 

 column, traversed usually by 4 wide medullary rays and often enclos- 

 ing a pith. The woody column is surrounded by a parenchymatous 

 layer separated from the cortical portion by one row of densely packed 

 small cells constituting a boundary analogous to the nucleus-sheath 

 (Kernscheide) met with in many toots of monocotyledons, as for instance 

 in sarsaparilla. The parenchyme of cimicifuga root contains small 

 starch granules. The structure of the drug is, on the Avhole, the same 

 as that of the closely allied European Aetata sjncata, L. 



Chemical Composition — Tilghmann* in 1834 analysed the drug, 

 obtaining from it gum, sugar, resin, starch and tannic acid, but no 

 peculiar principal. 



Conard ■* extracted from it a neutral crystalline substance of in- 

 tensely acrid taste, soluble in dilute alcohol, chloroform, or ether, but 

 not in benzol, oil of turpentine, or bisulphide of carbon. The composi- 

 tion of this body has not been ascertained. The same chemist showed 

 the drug not to afford a volatile principle, even in its fresh state. 



The American practitioners called Eclectics prepare with Black 

 Snake-root in the same manner as they prepare podophjdlin, an impure 

 resin which they term Ciniicifagin or Macrotin. The drug yields, 

 according to Parrish, 3f per cent, of this substance, which is sold in the 

 form of scales or as a dark brown powder. 



Uses— Cimicifuga usually prescribed in the form of tincture (called 

 Tinctura Actcecv racenwsw) has been employed chiefly in rheumatic 

 affections. It is also used in dropsy, the early stages of phthisis, and 

 in chronic bronchial disease. A strong tincture has been lately recom- 



^ Acta Soc. Keg. Sdenf.Upsal. 1743. 131. * Am. Joum. of Pharm. xliii. (1871)151; 



^Bentley, Pharm. Joum. ii. (1861) 460. Pharm. Journ. April 29, 1871. 866. 

 ' Quoted by Bentley. 



