"Trillium consists of the dried rhizome and root of Trillmm erectum Linne and other species of Trillium (Fam. Lilaceae}. Trillium contains not more than 2 per cent of foreign organic matter." N. F.

The trilliums are attractive native lilies easily recognized by their stout simple stem which bears at the summit a whorl of three broadly ovate leaves and a large terminal flower. The flower which appears in late spring, in the official species, is composed of three herbaceous sepals and three larger ovate petals usually of a brownish purple color. The fruit is a three-celled, six-angled red berry. The commercial supplies of this drug are obtained chiefly from North Carolina, Virginia, Indiana and Missouri.

Description and Physical Properties. — " Unground Trillium.—Rhizome oblique, globular, oblong or obeonical, truncate below, terminated at the top by a small bud surrounded by a sheath of scarious leaf bases, annulated by leaf scars and fissured by stem scars; from 0.6 to 5 cm. in length and from 1 to 3 cm. in width, more or less compressed laterally; rootlet scars in several concentric rows on the under side in the upper portions; externally yellowish to reddish brown; internally of a pale yellow; fracture somewhat uneven with a hard and close texture or a more or less spongy appearance. Odor distinct; taste bitter and acrid with a sensation of warmth in the throat, and when chewed causing an increased flow of saliva.

"Powdered Trillium. — Pale yellowish white; consisting chiefly of fragments composed of parenchyma some of which are elongated and contain raphides of calcium oxalate up to 0.225 mm. in length, others being nearly isodiametric, more or less thin-walled and containing mostly simple, nearly spheroidal altered or unaltered starch grains, the latter up to 0.020 mm. in diameter; fragments of epidermal tissue composed of cells with reddish brown porous walls; tracheae with spiral or reticulate markings." N. F.

Reid (A. J. P., 1892, p. 67) found in trillium 4.86 per cent, of a saponin, also an acid crystalline principle which gave a purplish brown reaction with sulphuric acid and a light green with sulphuric acid and potassium dichromate. Prendergast (Am. Drug., Nov., 1886) believes that there is present a glucoside similar to eonvallamarin. The drug also contains volatile oil and an astringent principle, probably a tannin.

Description. This is one of an extensive genus of North American, herbaceous, perennial plants, which are variously known under the names of Wake-robin, Birth-root, Indian-balm, Lamb's quarter, Ground lily, etc. It has an oblong, tuberous root, from which arises a slender stem, 10 to 15 inches in height. Leaves, 3 in number, are whorled at the top of the stem, suborbicular-rhomboidal, abruptly acuminate, 3 to 5 inches in diameter, and borne on petioles about a line in length. The flowers are white, solitary, terminal, cernuous, on a recurved peduncle from 1 to 2 1/2 inches long. This plant is common to the middle and western states, growing in rich soils, in damp, rocky, and shady woods, and flowering in May and June. Nearly all the species of the genus Trillium are medicinal, and possess analogous properties. 

The astringent varieties of Trillium have been found useful in hemorrhages; the acrid species in chronic affections of the respiratory organs, phthisis, hectic fever, etc. All the varieties have been found efficient, either internally or externally, in chronic mucous discharges, bronchorrhoea, leucorrhoea, menorrhagia, etc. Boiled in milk, it has been administered with benefit in diarrhoea and dysentery, and an infusion of equal parts of Trillium and Lycopus virginicus, has been highly recommended for the cure of diabetes. It does not diminish the amount of sugar excreted in the saccharine form, but restrains the secretion of the renal discharges in both forms.

Externally, the root, made into a poultice, is very useful in tumors, indolent or offensive ulcers, anthrax, buboes, stings of insects, and to restrain gangrene. In some instances its efficacy has been increased by combination with bloodroot. The red beth roots will, it is said, check ordinary epistaxis, by merely smelling the freshly-exposed surface of the recent root, and it is therefore probable that they contain an astringent principle of a volatile nature.

Related Species. Trillium sessile, Linn.. Leaves sessile, mottled, a deep-purple; flower sessile and dull-purple; petals erect, some spreading.

Abridged from:
King's American Dispensatory.
by Harvey Wickes Felter, M.D., and John Uri Lloyd, Phr. M., Ph. D., 1898.

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