Cascara is an official herb in many countries for relieving chronic constipation.

Rhamnus Purshiana:Botanical Source and History.

Cascara Sagrada Bark Extract INCI Name Rhamnus Purshiana Extract CAS 84650-55-5 EINECS ELINCS No 283-515-5 Buckthorn Extract photo picture image The bark of a shrubby deciduous tree between 5 and 8 metres high. Its reddish-brown bark is often covered with a grey lichen. The alternate dark green, elliptical to oblong-ovate leaves are finely and irregularly toothed or nearly entire. They are rounded at the base and may be obtuse or acute at the apex. Small, greenish flowers grow in finely hairy umbels, producing black, pea-sized drupes. It grows in mountainous regions of north-west North America.

Cascara sagrada is the dried, aged bark of a small tree in the buckthorn family native to the Pacific Northwest. The bark is harvested mostly from wild trees in Oregon, Washington, and southern British Columbia. The bark is aged for a year so that the active principles become milder, as freshly dried bark produces too strong a laxative for safe use; it also contains a compound that induces vomiting.

Cascara sagrada is a natural laxative that comes from the reddish-brown bark of the Rhamnus purshiana tree native to the Pacific Northwest. It was used by various Native American Indian tribes, who also passed their "sacred bark" on to Spanish explorers.

This is a small tree, found in the Rocky Mountains, and westwardly to the Pacific Ocean, and extending north into British America. According to Mr. James G. Steele, the country producing the tree extends over 1000 miles in length. The branches are round and pubescent. The leaves are from 3 to 5 inches long, about one-half as broad, and are borne on leaf-stalks nearly an inch in length. When young they are covered with a dense pubescence on the under surface, but become glabrous and bright-green when old. In outline, they are broadly elliptical, obtuse, and entire at the base, and generally with a blunt, acute apex. The margin of the leaf is regularly dentate, with numerous small, serrate teeth, except at the base. The lateral veins are many, subparallel, prominent underneath, and proceed from the midrib at an acute angle. The leaves closely resemble, but are not so slender as those of the Alder buckthorn, or Southern buckthorn, of our southern States (Frangula caroliniana, Gray (more), or Rhamnus caroliniana, Walter).

The flowers are small, white, and appear after the leaves have matured; they are borne in close, umbellar clusters, on pubescent peduncles, slightly longer than the leaf-stalks. The pedicels are short, about 1/4 inch in length when in flower, but, in fruit, elongate to an inch or more. The calyx is small, 5-cleft, and pubescent on the outer surface. The petals are 5, minute, white, shorter than the calyx lobes, and 2-cleft at the apex. The stamens are 5, opposite, and embraced by the concave petals. The pistil, which is much shorter than the calyx-tube, consists of a free, 3-celled, and 3-ovuled ovary, a short style, and a 3-lobed stigma. The fruit is a small black drupe, obtusely 3-angled, about the size of a large pea, and contains 3 black, shining seeds. The genus Rhamnus is represented by 6 native species, and all, excepting R. lanceolata, Pursh (more), and R. alnifolia, L'Heritier (more), are found on the Pacific coast. A few of the western species have evergreen coriaceous leaves. Rhamnus californica, Eschscholtz (more) (Frangula californica, Gray), known as California buckthorn, or California coffee tree, probably furnishes a portion of the Cascara sagrada of commerce (see Related Species). The bark of California mountain holly (Rhamnus crocea (more)) is aromatic and bitterish, and has both tonic and laxative qualities.

Cascara sagrada was discovered by an Eclectic physician, Dr. J. H. Bundy, its virtues being first extolled in "New Preparations," Detroit, 1877. Parke, Davis Co. introduced the fluid extract to the medical profession and gave it great conspicuity. It may be confidently said that to their efforts is due the widespread celebrity of this drug and its preparations.

Reference:

1.Cascara is an official herb in many countries for relieving chronic constipation.

last edit date:10th,Mar.2010.

Available Product

Name:Cascara Sagrada Bark Extract
Serie No:P077
Specifications:10:1.TLC
INCI Name:RHAMNUS PURSHIANA EXTRACT
EINECS/ELINCS No.:283-515-5
CAS:84650-55-5
Chem/IUPAC Name:Rhamnus Purshiana Extract is an extract of the dried bark of the cascara, Rhamnus purshiana, Rhamnaceae

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