U.S. PHARMACOPEIA

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Powdered Horse Chestnut
» Powdered Horse Chestnut is Horse Chestnut reduced to a powder or very fine powder. It contains not less than 3.0 percent of triterpene glycosides, calculated on the dried basis as escin (C55H86O24).
Packaging and storage— Preserve in well-closed, light-resistant containers, protected from moisture.
Labeling— The label states the Latin binomial and, following the official name, the part of the plant from which the article was derived.
Botanic characteristics— Yellowish-brown powder, odorless, with a somewhat mealy, disagreeably bitter, and lingering taste. It shows numerous, different-sized fatty oil droplets that are free or within the thin-walled, colorless tissue of the cotyledons. Fragments of the testa consist of thick-walled pitted sclerenchymatous cells. The following are also present: pyriform, roundish or reniform larger individual starch granules from 15 to 30 µm in diameter, smaller individual granules from 3 to 10 µm, and only a few compounded granules consisting of 2 to 4 single grains that form rows up to 45 µm in length. Many of the starch granules have a bistellate or polystellate, but rarely simple, hilum.
Other requirements It meets the requirements of the tests for Identification, Microbial enumeration, Loss on drying, Extractable matter, Total ash, Pesticide residues, Heavy metals, and Content of triterpene glycosides under Horse Chestnut.
Auxiliary Information— Staff Liaison : Maged H. Sharaf, Ph.D., Senior Scientist
Expert Committee : (DSB05) Dietary Supplements - Botanicals
USP29–NF24 Page 2349
Pharmacopeial Forum : Volume No. 28(3) Page 799
Phone Number : 1-301-816-8318