It consists of dried rhizome of Picrorhiza kurroa Royle ex Benth., cut into small pieces and freed from attached root-lets, belonging to family Scrophulariaceae.
PICRORHIZA
Synonyms
Kami; Kuru (Hindi); Katvee.
Biological Source
It consists of dried rhizome of Picrorhiza kurroa Royle ex Benth., cut into small pieces and freed
from attached root-lets, belonging to family Scrophulariaceae.
Geographical Source
The plant is common on the alpine Himalayas from Kashmir to
Sikkim between 3,000 and 5,000 m.
Characteristics
It is a low, hairy herb with a perennial woody bitter
rhizome, 15–25 cm long, covered with dry leaf-bases It occurs as pieces, 2–4 cm
long and 0.3–1.0 cm in diameter. Scales at distant intervals are present;
frequently small protuberances, which probably represent accessary buds, are
observed both at the rhizomes and the stolones.
The drug consists of small pieces. Colour is greyish-brown,
light, cylindrical, straight or slightly curved, often with remains of aerial
stem which is very dark brown and wrinkled longitudinally, upper and lower
surfaces bear a few small root scars, numerous scale leaves and thin scars;
odour slightly unpleasant; taste very bitter.
Microscopy
Transverse section of the rhizome shows cork composed of
several layers of uniformly arranged, tightly packed, thin-walled cells. Cork
surrounds a broad cortex, composed of thin-walled; mostly irregularly
rounded-oval parenchymatous cells and some of them merge into the secondary
phloem tissue, which consists of sieve tubes, companion cells and parenchyma.
Cambium is narrow and wavy consisting of several layers of compressed cells.
The secondary xylem is composed of thick-walled vessels with annular, spiral or
reticulate thickening, tracheids and fibres. Pith is composed of thin-walled
parenchymatous cells.
Chemical Constituents
The active constituent of picrorhiza is picrorhizin, a
glucoside which yields picrorhizetin and dextrose on hydrolysis. It also
contains kutkin, a glucosidal bitter principle, picroside-I, picroside-II,
picroside-III, D-mannitol, vanilic acid, kurrin, kutkiol, kutkisterol,
apocynin, 6-feruioylcatalpol, vernico-side, apocynin, kutkoside, 6-feruloyl
catapol, veronicoside, minecoside, picein, androsin, β-D-6-cinnamoylglucose, arvenin III, phenolic glycosides
picein and androsin and seven cucurbitacin glycoside.
Uses
Picrorhiza is bitter, cathartic, stomachic, used in fever
and dyspepsia and in purgative preparations. It is reputed as an antiperiodic
and cholagogue, febrifuge and antimalarial. Different types of jaundice are
cured with Picrorhiza. It removes kidney stone, used as emmenagogue, emetic,
abortifacient, antidote for dog bite; externally it is used in skin diseases
and improves eyesight. It is a valuable bitter tonic almost as efficacious as
Gentian. It is laxative in small doses and cathartic in large doses.
Marketed Products
It is one of the ingredients of the preparations known as
Purim (Himalaya Drug Company), Piles care, Aptizooom (Charak), Herbohep,
Aptikid (Lupin Herbal Laboratory) and Madhumehari (Baidyanath).
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