臺灣產生藥資源之開發研究（第八報）筆仔草之生藥學研究

Development of Natural Crude Drug Resources from TaiWan (VIII) Pharmacognostical Studies on ＂Pit-A-Chho＂

筆仔草係本省常用之生藥，能清熱、解暑、利尿、解毒通便，民間常用於黃疸型肝炎、糖尿病、感冒、高熱、中暑、尿路感染、腎炎、水腫等疾病之治療。關於筆仔草之基源植物，據佐佐木之調查，認為係禾本科值物Pogonatherum saccharoideum Beauv. var. monandrum(ROXB.) HACK.之全草，又據甘、許等人之調查，則認為係同科植物P.crinitum (THUNB.) KUNTH之乾燥全草，然截至目前尚未被證實。為了究明市售筆仔草之基源，確保藥效，而從事生藥學之研究。由生藥學之研究，臺灣產筆仔草及Pogonatherum屬植物二種之外部形態特徵及內部構造特徵，如表l所示。從1)葉的大小、葉鞘長短、葉維管束數目、主脈橫切面的厚度、主脈維管束的徑、主脈下表皮內接之纖維數目及纖維的壁厚，2)葉表面鏡檢中micro-hair的疏、密；單細胞短刺毛的長、短；波浪狀長方形細胞的大小，3)莖纖維層的纖維壁厚度、維管束之數目與大小，4)根的維管束木部之數目等之觀察，可區別出來。由這些結果，確證了臺灣市售筆仔草之基源為Pogonatherum crinitum (THUNB.) KUNTH之全草。

”Pit-a-chho” is a folk medicine in Taiwan, used as remedies for jaundice, hepatitis, diabetes, congestive fever, sunstroke, scabbodo, urethritis, nephritis, dropsy, etc. ”Pit-a-chho” was assumed to have been derived from the entire plant of Pogonatherum saccharoideum BEAUV. var. monandrum (R(subscript OXB).) H(subscript ACK.) of Gramineae by Sasaki, and of Pogonatherum crinitum (T(subscript HUNB.)) K(subscript UNTH) of Gramineae by Kan and Hsu. However, this has not been proved yet. To clarify the botanical origin, the comparative anatomy of the entire plant of Pogonatherum plants growing generally in Taiwan, P. crinitum, P. paniceum, was examined.The results show that ”Pit-a-chho” is derived from the entire plant of P. crinitum (T(subscript HUNB.)) K(subscript UNTH).The morphological characteristics of Pogonatherum species from Taiwan are shown in Table 1.