PODOPHYLLUM 



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producing, when it flowers, but two leaves and a single flower. The 

 drug was well known to the North American Indians as an emetic and 

 vermifuge ; it was introduced into the British Pharmacopoeia in 1864. 

 The rhizome, which grows to a length of several feet, is collected 

 in the late summer and dried ; it is usually cut into pieces about 

 10 cm. in length. 



Description. Podophyllum root, or more correctly rhizome, is 

 seen in commerce usually in nearly cylindrical pieces 10 or more 

 cm. in length and about 5 mm. in thickness. These are of a dark 

 reddish brown colour, and are nearly smooth or slightly longitudinally 



FIG. 154. Podophyllum rhizome. A, plump autumnal rhizome 

 without roots showing the scar left by the aerial stem. B, 

 transverse section of the same. C, shrivelled summer rhizome 

 with roots attached. All natural size. 



wrinkled. Summer rhizomes contain less starch and are flatter and 

 more deeply wrinkled. At intervals of about 5 cm. the rhizome 

 is enlarged and bears on the upper surface a concave scar surrounded 

 by several circular leaf-scars ; these have been left by an aerial flower- 

 ing stem and its cataphyllary leaves. Below the stem-scar, on the 

 under surface of the rhizome, are the scars of several stout roots, 

 which are occasionally left attached to the rhizome, but which more 

 commonly have been removed. The rhizome occasionally forks, but 

 produces very few lateral branches. When a flowering stem is pro- 

 duced the growth of the main axis is terminated ; a bud in the axil 

 of one of the cataphyllary leaves then develops, forming a sympodial 

 system and continuing the growth of the plant. 



The rhizome breaks with a short fracture. The transverse section 

 is usually white and starchy, but if the heat employed in drying 

 the rhizome has been sufficient to gelatinise the starch it is yellowish 

 and horny ; it exhibits a very thin cork and a circle of small, oval, 

 distant, fibro- vascular bundles. 



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