292 SUBTERRANEAN ORGANS 



and should compare the drug with 



Bloodroot, which usually has a dark reddish brown colour, and 

 exhibits in transverse section a more or less prominent 

 red colour without evident wood-bundles. 



Constituents. The principal constituents of golden seal are the 

 alkaloids hydrastine, berberine, and canadine. The drug contains 

 in addition resin, starch, and a trace of volatile oil. It leaves from 

 5 to 8 per cent, of ash on incineration. 



Hydrastine, C 2 iH 21 NO 6 (1-5 to 3-2 per cent.), crystallises in colourless bitter 

 prisms melting at 132. It yields by oxidation hydrastinine, C^H^NOa, and 

 opianic acid, C 10 H 10 5 , the latter body being also obtained when narcotine 

 is boiled with solution of potassium hydroxide, thus indicating a closa relation- 

 ship between hydrastine and narcotine, the latter differing only by the presence 

 of a methoxy group. 



Canadine (xanthopuccine), C2oH 21 N0 4 , forms colourless crystals melting 

 at 132 and becoming yellow when exposed to the light. Berberine (compare 

 p. 235) occurs to the extent of about 3 per cent. 



Uses. Hydrastis rhizome is a bitter tonic resembling nux vomica. 

 It also exerts an astringent action due to the alkaloid hydrastine. It 

 is used as a stomachic and nervine stimulant, in menorrhagia and 

 inflammation of the uterine mucous membrane, and is employed locally 

 in various kinds of ulceration and haemorrhage. 



Adulterants. Accidental admixture of other rhizomes such as that 

 of Aristolochia Serpentaria, Linne, Stylophorum diphyllum, Nuttall, 

 Cypripedium parviflorum, Salisbury, have been observed, but they 

 are all easily detected. 



BLACK HELLEBORE RHIZOME 



(Rhizoma (Radix) Hellebori Nigri) 



Source, &C. Black hellebore rhizome, or, as it is often, but less cor- 

 rectly, termed, root, is obtained from the Christmas rose, Hetteborus 

 niger, Linne (N.O. Eanunculacece) , a low herb with a perennial rhizome, 

 abundant on the lower Alps of southern Europe, especially in Austria, 

 and much cultivated in this country for its white flowers, which, as 

 the name of the plant indicates, appear in midwinter, Our supplies 

 of the drug come chiefly from Germany. The rhizome enjoyed a 

 considerable reputation in the later Middle Ages as a stimulant, purga- 

 tive, and digestive, but it is now seldom employed. It should be 

 collected in the autumn. 



Description. The Christmas rose produces a horizontal creeping 

 or frequently oblique or even upright rhizome, which is usually, when 

 dried, about 3 to 5 cm. long, 6 mm. thick, and nearly black in colour. 

 It is generally very irregular, tortuous and branched, the older pieces 



