390 SUBTERRANEAN ORGANS 



WHITE HELLEBORE RHIZOME 



(Rhizoma Veratri Albi) 



Source, &C. White hellebore, Veratrum album, Linne (N.O. 

 Liliacece), is an herbaceous plant with erect perennial rhizome, common 

 in the mountains of central and southern Europe. It produces large, 

 ovate, ribbed leaves and a flowering stem that attains a height of a 

 metre or more. The rhizome appears to have been known and used 

 medicinally for many years, but owing to its powerful and uncertain 

 action it has been employed chiefly as an external application, though 

 to a limited extent only. 



The rhizome is dug up in the autumn, and the leaves, which are all 

 radical until a flowering stem is produced, are cut off close to it. It 

 is then usually dried entire, but is sometimes cut longitudinally into 

 halves or quarters to facilitate drying, sometimes deprived of its roots 

 and occasionally sliced transversely. The separation of the roots is 

 to be deprecated, as they appear to be more active than the rhizome. 

 When fresh the rhizome has an alliaceous odour, but this is lost by 

 drying. 



Description. White hellebore rhizome (when freed from the roots) 

 averages about 5 cm. in length and 2 cm. in thickness, and is of a dull 

 black colour externally. The upper part is nearly cylindrical, but 

 the lower extremity, where the rhizome gradually perishes and rots 

 away as growth progresses, is usually bluntly conical or truncate. It 

 is crowned with a dense leafy mass consisting of the thin, dry remains 

 of numerous concentrically arranged leaf -bases which have been cut off 

 level close to the rhizome ; the outer of these are coarsely fibrous, the 

 parenchymatous tissue having perished, leaving the veins persistent. 

 The surface of the rhizome is rough and wrinkled and shows encircling 

 scars, in the centre of which the slender wood is distinctly visible. In 

 the untrimmed rhizome the roots are very numerous and stout : they 

 completely envelop the rhizome, so that the untrimmed drug is much 

 more bulky than the rhizome alone. They are usually dull grey or 

 yellowish in colour, and commonly show a disposition to shrivel 

 longitudinally rather than transversely. 



The rhizome frequently branches, two or even three branches 

 springing from the same rhizome. This is caused by the production 

 of a flowering stem ; the main axis being thus terminated, the growth 

 of the rhizome is continued by the development of one or more of the 

 buds that are situated in the axils of the inner radical leaves. Such a 

 branch may grow for several years before it flowers. 



The drug breaks with a short fracture, the interior being whitish, 

 firm, compact, and starchy. The cortex is about 3 mm. thick, and 

 separated by a wavy, brownish line (endodermis) from the stele, the 



