_Radix Veratri_, _Radix Hellebori albi_; _White Hellebore_; F. _Racine
d’Ellébore blanc_; G. _Weisse Nieswurzel_, _Germer_.
=Botanical Origin=—_Veratrum album_ L.—This plant occurs in moist
grassy places in the mountain regions of Middle and Southern Europe,
as Auvergne, the Pyrenees, Spain, Switzerland, and Austria. In Norway
it reaches, according to Schübeler (_l. c._ p. 556), the latitude of
71°. It also grows throughout European and Asiatic Russia as far as 61°
N. lat., in Amurland, the island of Saghalin, Northern China, and Japan.
=History=—The confusion that existed among the ancients between
_Melampodium_, _Helleborus_, and _Veratrum_, makes the identification
of the plant under notice extremely unsatisfactory.[2594] It was
perfectly described or figured by Brunfels, Tragus, and other botanists
of the 16th century, and likewise well known to Gerarde (_circa_ A.D.
1600). Under the names of _Elleborus_ (or _Helleborus albus_) and
_Veratrum_, it has had a place in all the London Pharmacopœias. In the
British Pharmacopœia (1867) it has been replaced by the nearly allied
American species, _Veratrum viride_ Aiton.
=Description=—White Hellebore has a cylindrical, fleshy, perennial
rootstock, 2 to 3 inches in length, and ¾ to 1 inch in diameter, beset
with long stout roots. When fresh it has an alliaceous smell. In the
dried state, as it occurs in commerce, it is cylindrical or subconical,
of a dull earthy black, very rough in its lower half with the pits and
scars of old roots; more or less beset above with the remains of recent
roots. The top is crowned with the bases of the leaves, the outer of
which are coarsely fibrous. The plant has generally been cut off close
to the summit of the rhizome, which latter is seldom quite entire,
being often broken at its lower end, or cut transversely to facilitate
drying. Internally it is nearly colourless; a transverse section shows
a broad white ring surrounding a spongy pale buff central portion.
The drug has a sweetish, bitterish acrid taste, leaving on the tongue
a sensation of numbness and tingling. In the state of powder, it
occasions violent sneezing.
=Microscopic Structure=—When cut transversely, the rhizome shows at
a distance of 2-4 mm. from the thin dark outer bark, a fine brown
zigzag line (medullary sheath) surrounding the central part, which
exhibits a pith not well defined. The zone between the outer bark
and the medullary sheath is pure white, with the exception of some
isolated cells containing resin or colouring matter, and those places
where the rootlets pass from the interior. The latter is sprinkled as
it were, with short, thin somewhat lighter bundles of vessels which
run irregularly out in all directions. The parenchyme of the centre
rhizome is filled with starch, and contains numerous needles of calcium
oxalate. The rootlets, which the collectors usually remove, are living
and juicy only in the upper half of the rhizome, the lower part of
which is rather woody and porous.
=Chemical Composition=—In 1819 Pelletier and Caventou detected in the
rhizome of _Veratrum_ a substance which they regarded as identical with
veratrine, the existence of which had just been discovered by Meissner
in cebadilla seeds. But according to the observations of Maisch (1870)
and Dragendorff,[2595] the veratrine of cebadilla cannot be found
either in _Veratrum album_ or _V. viride_.
[2594] Those who wish to study the question, can consult Murray’s
_Apparatus Medicaminum_. vol. v. (1790) 142-146.
[2595] _Beitr. zur gerichtl. Chemie_, St Petersb., 1872. 95.
Simon (1837) found in the root the alkaloid _Jervine_, Tobien (1877)
the _Veratroïdine_, discovered by Bullock (1876) in _Veratrum viride_.
Tobien assigns to jervine the formula C₂₇H₄₇N₂O₈; that of veratroïdine
is not yet settled. The latter is to some extent soluble in water.
Weppen (1872) has isolated from this drug _Veratramarin_, an amorphous,
deliquescent, bitter principle. It occurs in minute quantity only, and
is resolvable into sugar and other products. Veratramarin dissolves
in water or spirit of wine, not in ether or in chloroform. The same
observer has also isolated, to the extent of ½ per mille, _Jervic
Acid_ in hard crystals of considerable size,[2596] of the composition
C₁₄H₁₀O₁₂ + 2 H₂O. The acid requires 100 parts of water for solution at
the ordinary temperature, and a little less of boiling alcohol. It is
decidedly acid, and forms well-defined crystallizable salts, containing
4 atoms of the monovalent metals.
By exhausting the entire rhizome (roots included) with ether and
anhydrous alcohol, we obtained 25·8 per cent. of soft resin, which
deserves further examination. Pectic matter to the amount of 10 per
cent. was pointed out by Wiegand in 1841.
According to Schroff (1860), in the rootlets the active principle
resides in the cortical part, the woody central portion being inert. He
also asserts that the rhizome acts less strongly than the rootlets, and
in a somewhat different manner.
=Commerce=—The drug is imported from Germany in bales. The
price-currents distinguish _Swiss_ and _Austrian_, and generally name
the drug as “_without fibre_.”
=Uses=—Veratrum is an emetic and drastic purgative, rarely used
internally. It is occasionally employed in the form of ointment in
scabies. Its principal consumption is in veterinary medicine.
=Substitutes=—The rhizome of the Austrian _Veratrum nigrum_ L. is said
to be sometimes collected instead of White Hellebore; it is of much
smaller size, and, according to Schroff, less potent. That of the
Mexican _Helonias frigida_ Lindley (_Veratrum frigidum_ Schl.) appears
to exactly resemble that of _Veratrum album_.