RHIZOMA PODOPHYLLI. 37 



have been long known to the Indians of North America. The plant 

 was figured in 1731 by Catesby^ who remarks that its root is an 

 excellent emetic. Its cathartic properties were noticed by Schopf 

 and Barton^ and have been commented upon by many subsequent 

 writers. In 1820, podophyllum was introduced into the United States 

 Phannacojxeia, and in 1864 into the Bntinh Fhcwmacopoeia. Hodg- 

 son published in 1832 in the Journal of the Philadelphia College of 

 Phai^iacy* the first attempt of a chemical examination of the 

 rhizome, which now furnishes one of the most popular purgatives, the 

 so-called Podojjhyllin, manufactured on a large scale at Cincinnati 

 and in other places in America, as well as in England. 



Description — The drug consists of the rhizome and rootlets. The 

 former creeps to a length of several feet, but as imported is mostly in 

 somewhat flattened pieces of 1 to 8 inches in length and 2 to -i lines in 

 longest diameter : it is marked by knotty joints showing a depressed 

 scar at intervals of a few inches which marks the place of a fallen 

 stem. Each joint is in fact the growth of one year, the terminal bud 

 being enclosed in papery brownish sheaths. Sometimes the knots 

 produce one, two, or even three lateral buds and the rhozime is bi- or 

 tri-furcate. The reddish-brown or grey surface is obscurely marked 

 at intervals by oblique wrinkles indicating the former attachment of 

 rudimentary leaves. The rootlets are about h a line thick and arise 

 from below the knots and adjacent parts of the rhizume, the internodal 

 space being bare. They are brittle, easily detached, and commonly of 

 a paler colour. The rhizome is mostly smooth, but some of the 

 branched pieces are deeply furrowed. Both rootstock and rootlets 

 have a short, smooth, mealy fracture ; the transverse section is white, 

 exhibiting only an extremely small corky layer and a thin simple 

 circle of about 20 to 40 yellow, vascular bundles, enclosing a central 

 pith which in the larger pieces is often 2 lines in diameter. 



The drug has a heavy narcotic, disagreeable odour, and a bitter, acrid, 

 nauseous taste. 



Microscopic Structure — The v^ascular bundles are composed of 

 spiral and scalariform vessels int^ermixed with cambial tissue. From 

 each bundle a narrow- tissued, wedge- or crescent-shaped liber-bundle 

 projects a little into the cortical layer. This, as well as the pith, exhibits 

 large thin-walled cells. The rootlets are as usual of a different 

 structure, their central part consisting of one group of vascular bundles 

 more or less scattered.^ The parenchymatous cells of the drug are 

 loaded with starch granules ; some also contain stellate tufts of oxalate 

 of calcium. 



Chemical Composition — The active principles of podophyllum 

 exist in the resin, which according to Squibb® is best prepared by the 

 process termed re-jyercolation. The powdered drug is exhausted by 

 alcohol which is made to percolate through successive portions. The 



1 Nat. Hist, of Carolina, i. tab. 24. * Vol. iii. 273. 



* Materia Meil. Americ. Erlangse, 1787, * Figured by Power, Proc. American 

 p. 86. Schopf was physician to German Phar. Assoc., 1877. 420 — 433. 



troops fighting in the War of Independence. ^ Americaii Journ. of Pharm. xvi. (1868) 



* Collections for an Essay on Mat. Med. of 1 — 10. 

 U.S. Philad. 1798, 31. 



