Page 205 - Pharmacognosy 2 PG303

Pharmacognosy-2 (PG303) Level 2 Clinical Pharmacy-Pharm D

Constituents
Dried colchicum corm contains up to about 0.6 % of the toxic alkaloid

colchicine. The drug also contains abundance of starch. It yields from 2.2-2.4%
of ash.

Uses
Colchicum is chiefly used to relieve the pain and inflammation and shorten

the duration of acute gout and certain gouty affections, but is liable to cause
intestinal pain accompanied by vomiting and purging. Colchicine induces
polyploidy in seedlings treated with a weak solution about 0.4 %.

Indian colchicum: Colchici Indici Cormus.

Indian colchicum is the corm of Colchicum luteum Baker, Family Liliaceae,
deprived of its membranous coats and dried.

Macroscopical Characters
The corms are brownish and translucent or pale-buff and semi-translucent or,

more rarely, opaque, and cream colored or brownish-gray, usually ovate in outline
and plano-convex with a slight contraction of the convex surface at the level of the
oval scar marking the area where the corm was attached to that of the previous
season and the margin of which exhibits scars left by the removal of the fibrous
roots, the outer surface of the corm is marked by indefinite and irregular
longitudinal striations. Some corms are broadly ovoid, 30-45 mm. long 15-25
mm. wide and 7-15 mm. thick, with a longitudinal groove 2-9 mm. wide,
sometimes very shallow, and extending the entire length of the flat surface; the oval
scar is about 3 by 5 mm., dark in color and occurs at the base or at a position
one-tenth to one-half of the length of the corm from the base. Other corms are
elongated and finger-like, being about 35-40 mm. long, 8-10 mm. broad and 5-8
mm. thick, with the scar at a point two-thirds to three-quarters of the length

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