THE 
AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY. 
JANUARY,    1  8  55. 
ON  JEFFERSONIA  DIPIIYLLA.   (TWIN  LEAF— RHEUMATISM 
ROOT.) 
By  Edward  S.  Wayne. 
Nat.  Ord. —Berberidaceae.    Sex.  Syst.— Octandria  monogynia. 
The  JefTersonia  diphylla  is  a  herbaceous  annual  plant  ;  the 
scape  or  stem  is  naked,  from  eight  to  fourteen  inches  high;  the 
leaves  are  in  pairs,  binate,  placed  base  to  base  ;  oval  broader  than 
long,  ending  in  an  obtuse  point,  smooth,  glaucous  beneath,  and 
on  petioles  as  long  as  the  scape,  which  arise  from  the  rhizoma. 
The  flowers  are  large,  regular,  white.  The  calyx  consists  of  four 
deciduous  sepals.  Stamens  eight,  with  oblong  linear  anthers  on 
slender  filaments.  Ovary  ovoid,  soon  gibbous,  pointed  ;  stigma 
two  lobed.  The  capsule  is  obovate,  stipitate,  one  celled,.opening 
half  way  round  horizontally,  making  a  persistent  lid.  Seeds 
many  on  the  lateral  placenta,  with  a  fleshy  lacerate  aril,  on  one 
side,  oblong.  (I  am  indebted  to  the  American  Eclectic  Dispensa- 
tory for  the  botanical  description  of  this  plant.) 
The  root,  which  is  the  part  used,  is  a  thick,  knotty,  rhizoma, 
from  which  long  fibrous  roots  proceed;  it  is  of  a  brownish  yellow 
color.  The  epidermis  is  somewhat  corrugated,  and  in  some  spe- 
cimens transversely  cracked.  The  bark  is  resinous,  and  contains 
the  active  principles  of  the  root.  The  central  portion  is  lig- 
neous, of  a  light  straw  color,  and  possesses  little  or  none  of 
the  bitter  acrid  taste  of  the  bark,  from  which  it  is  easily  se- 
parated by  bruising  the  root.  The  root,  when  chewed,  has  a 
bitter  mucilaginous  taste  at  first,  but  after  a  short  time  an  acrid 
taste,  leaving  a  peculiar  irritating  sensation  in  the  fauces,  similar 
in  some  respects  to  senega.  This  plant  is  indigenous  to  North 
America,  is  found  in  New  York,  Maryland,  and  in  Virginia,  and 
in  many  parts  of  the  Western  States.     My  attention  has  been  at- 
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