Black Hellebore.(Drug overview)

Helleborus niger

DESCRIPTION

Medicinal Parts: The medicinal parts of the plant are the dried rhizome with or without roots and the fresh underground parts.

Flower and Fruit: The flower is white with a greenish margin, reddish on the outside. It is hanging and splayed. There are 5 broadly ovate, campanualate bracts with red-brown borders, which tend toward each other. The petals are altered to nectaries. There are numerous yellow stamens. The fruit is a podlike, many-seeded follicle with a curved beak and horizontal stripes. The seeds are matte black, ovate, and have a long swelling on them. Leaves, Stem, and Root: The plant is a perennial subshrub up to 50 cm high. The stem is erect, glabrous, branched, woody at the base, and almost leafless. The basal leaves are long-petioled, thickish, coriaceous, …