It is a gastro-intestinal irritant, a powerful hepatic and intestinal stimulant. Podophyllum is a medicine of most extensive service its greatest power lies in its action upon the liver and bowels. Medicinal Action and Uses-Antibilious, cathartic, hydragogue, purgative. By this means the resin is precipitated, and may be collected and dried. The resin is prepared by making a tincture of the rhizome, removing from this the greater part of the spirit by distillation and pouring the remaining liquor into water acidified with hydrochloric acid. It is used almost entirely in the form of podophyllum resin. Podophyllum rhizome is said to be most active when it is beginning to shoot. It yields about 3 per cent of ash on incinceration. It also contains picro-podophyllin, a yellow colouring matter, quercetin, sugar, starch, fat, etc. Constituents-A neutral crystalline substance, podo-phyllotoxin, and an amorphous resin, podophylloresin, both of which are purgative. It must be carefully distinguished from English Mandrake ( Bryonia dioica), which is sometimes offered as Mandrake root. Part Used-The dried rhizome, from which a resin is also extracted. Divide either in autumn, when the leaves decay, or in spring, just before the roots begin to shoot, preferably the latter. It propagates so fast by its creeping roots that this mode of propagation is preferred. Propagate (1) by sowing seeds, in sandy soil, planting out in the following spring or autumn (2) by division of roots. It requires no other culture than to be kept clear of weeds, and is so hardy as to be seldom injured by frost. Cultivation-It grows in warm, sheltered spots, such as partially shaded borders, woods, and marshes, liking a light, loamy soil. Hence one of the popular names of the plant - Duck's Foot. The Latin name is derived from pous, podos (a foot) and phyllon (a leaf), alluding to a fanciful resemblance in the palmate leaf to the foot of some web-footed aquatic bird. It was included in the British Pharmacopoeia in 1864. The drug was well known to the North American Indians as an emetic and vermifuge. The foliage and stems have been used as a pot-herb, but in some cases with fatal results. In taste it is sweet, though slightly acid and is edible. When it falls off, the fruit that develops swells to the size and shape of the common rosehip, being 1 to 2 inches long. Between their foot-stalks, grows a solitary, drooping white flower, about 2 inches across, appearing in May. The stems are solitary, mostly unbranched, 1 to 2 feet high, crowned with two large, smooth leaves, stalked, peltate in the middle like an umbrella, of the size of a hand, composed of five to seven wedge-shaped divisions, somewhat lobed and toothed at the apex. Description-The root is composed of many thick tubers, fastened together by fleshy fibres which spread greatly underground, sending out many smaller fibres at the joints, which strike downward. Habitat-The American Mandrake is a small herb with a long, perennial, creeping rhizome, a native of many parts of North America, common in the eastern United States and Canada, growing there profusely in wet meadows and in damp, open woods. Mandrake, American Botanical: Podophyllum peltatum (LINN.)
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