WHO monographs on selected medicinal plants - travolekar.ru

Cortex Berberidis
Plant material of interest: dried stem bark
General appearance
Crude drug may be small, flat and irregular shaped, up to 2.0 mm thick,
or curved pieces up to 0.5 mm thick; outer surface dark yellowish-grey
with shallow, longitudinal furrows, or thicker pieces with deeper cracks
and fissures. Occasionally, black apothecia of lichens are present. Inner
surface dark yellow to brown, distinctly longitudinally striated and glistening,
frequently with patches of paler yellow wood attached. Fracture
in the outer part is short, and readily separates, but fracture in the inner
part is fibrous (1, 5).
Organoleptic properties
Odour: faint aromatic; taste: bitter and imparts a yellow colour to the
saliva (1).
Microscopic characteristics
Outer rhytidome consists of successive areas of thin-walled, lignified cork
cells alternating with dark yellowish-brown areas of dead cortex and secondary
phloem. The secondary phloem contains tangential bands of fibres,
usually one or two cells wide, alternating with wider bands of sieve
tissue and separated by medullary rays, 2–4 cells wide. The phloem fibres
are small, yellow, thick walled and lignified with very numerous, conspicuous
pits. Phloem consists of narrow sieve tubes and small-celled parenchyma
cells. Many of the medullary ray cells contain one or occasionally
two large prism crystals of calcium oxalate per cell. Other medullary
ray cells contain starch granules and some medullary ray cells, especially
those adjacent to the phloem fibres, will develop into stone cells with
moderately thickened walls (1).
Powdered plant material
Yellowish-brown, containing fragments of thin-walled, lignified, polygonal
cork cells; abundant short, yellow fibres occurring singly or in
small groups with thick, lignified walls and very numerous pits; thinwalled
sieve tubes and associated parenchyma; prism crystals of calcium
oxalate in medullary ray cells and scattered, individual crystals, occasionally
twinned; small, simple starch granules, rounded to ovoid;
groups of rectangular stone cells with moderately thickened walls and
numerous pits; abundant groups of yellowish-brown crushed parenchyma;
occasional lignified fibres and vessels from the adherent
xylem (1).
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