NIS - libdoc.who.int - World Health Organization

WHO monographs on medicinal plants commonly used in the Newly Independent States (NIS)
Description
A perennial plant, 30–100 cm high. Rhizome, woody, large. Root, stout.
Stems, numerous, herbaceous, shrubby base, branched, forked-corymbose,
glabrous. Leaves, alternate, sessile, ovate outline, 4–10 cm long,
5.8–6.5 cm wide, irregularly finely divided into long narrow lobes of
1–3.5 cm long and 1.5–3 mm wide. Inflorescence, compound monochasial
scorpioid cyme. Flowers, terminal and axillary, solitary, actinomorphous,
hermaphrodite, white, fragrant, 25–30 mm in diameter; pedicels angular,
green, 1–2.5 cm long; petals 5, oblong-elliptic; sepals 5, persistent, narrow,
slightly longer than the petals; stamens 10–15, enlarged at the base filaments;
ovary globular, trilocular, superior. Fruits, capsules, globular,
stalked, erect, 3-valved loculicidal, 6–10 mm in diameter, dull earthy
brown colour, reticulate seed coat, strong characteristic odour when
crushed, bitter in taste. Seeds, numerous (more than 50), subtriangular,
reticulately pitted, 3–4 mm long, dark brown. The herbage begins to develop
new shoots in February, flowers appear in April, the plant flowers
until October and bears fruits from April to November. The aerial parts
are gathered in summer (1, 3, 7, 17, 23–27).
Plant material of interest: dried aerial parts
General appearance
Fragments of young stems, cylindrical, glabrous, 8–80 mm long, up to
8 mm in diameter, yellowish-green. Whole or fragmented leaves, filiform,
glabrous, 0.5–20 mm long, yellowish or brownish-green. Flowers large,
terminal, and white. The seeds are triangular concavo-convex, dull brown,
up to 4 mm long and 1–2 mm broad (14, 22).
Organoleptic properties
Odour: specific, slight, unpleasant; taste (of fruits): very bitter, spicy (4, 28).
Microscopic characteristics
Leaf has two kinds of epidermal cells: large oblong and small isodiametric.
Anomocytic stomata surrounded by small epidermal cells. Needlelike
calcium oxalate crystals in the mesophyll. Glandular trichomes on the
whole upper epidermis of young leaves persisting only at the leaf base at
maturity. Trichomes have a stalk of 4–6 cells and a multicellular head.
Seed rind is 4-layered. Outer layer of epidermis consists of large, rectangular,
radially elongated (the length being two to three times greater than
the breadth), thick-walled cells, strongly thickened in the upper corners
and with outgrowth of walls starting from the inside. Epidermal cells
300