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PHARMACEUTICAL BOTANY 
Iridacece or Iris Family .—Perennial herbs with equitant two- 
ranked leaves and regular or irregular flowers which are showy. 
Fruit a three-celled, loculicidal, many-seeded capsule. Rootstocks, 
tubers, or corms mostly acrid. 
Official drug 
Iris N.F. 
Iris Versicolor 
N.F. 
Crocus N.F. 
Part used 
Peeled rhizome 
Rhizome 
Stigmas 
Botanical name 
f Iris florentina 
Iris pallida 
Iris germanica 
Iris versicolor 
Crocus sativus 
Habitat 
\ Europe 
Eastern United 
States 
Mediterranean 
Basin 
V. Order Scitaminales. —Zingiber acece or Ginger Family. —Trop¬ 
ical plants, perennial herbs, with fleshy rhizomes and large elliptical 
pinnately-veined leaves. The leaf sheaths are folded tightly around 
each other so as to give the appearance of a stem. Flowers, very 
irregular, trimerous; sepals three short, often green; petals three, 
elongate, often fused below; stamens three to four abortive, petaloid, 
one often absent, a sixth alone fertile and stamen-like. The petaloid 
stamens constitute the most attractive parts of the flower. Pistil, 
inferior, tricarpellary. Fruit, a capsule. Seeds, albuminous with 
both perispermic and endospermic albumen. 
Official drug Part used 
Botanical name Habitat 
Zingiber 
Cardamomi 
Semen 
Galanga N.F. 
Zedoaria N.F. 
Unofficial drug 
Curcuma 
Rhizome 
Seeds 
Rhizome 
Rhizome 
Zingiber officinale Asia 
Elettaria Indo-China 
Cardamomum 
Alpinia Asia 
officinarum 
Curcuma Zedoaria Asia, Madagascar 
Prepared rhizome Curcuma longa South Asia 
