Origin:
Native of China and Japan. Found in the hills of northern India up to an altitude of 2400m.

Action:
Bark—astringent, antispasmodic, parasiticidal.

Toxicity:
narcotic, cardiac depressant (exercises powerful depressing influence on nervous system similar to that of tobacco). Leaves produce dermatitis; their accumulation in well-water produces chronic gastritis. The rootbark is used in traditional Chinese medicine for dysentery and leucorrhoea. In Africa, rootbark is used in epilepsy.

Khare, C.P./ Indian Medicinal Plants. -- Nueva Dheli: Springer, 2007 . - p. 836.