Mostly trees or shrubs, only seldom herbs or lianas. Leaves entire or divided, occasionally with amedian stipule on top of the sheath. Flowers small, aggregated in heads, umbels or spikes. The fruit is a berry or drupe with a fleshy meso and a hard endocarp, and a seed in each com partment, occasionally even separating into mericarps. Stellate hairs and scaly hairs are frequent, as well as schizogeneous resin ducts. Triterpene saponins are characteristic contents which are probably responsible for the antitussive and secretolytic effects. The asiatic Ginseng is said to be a tonicum, roborant, and geriatricum.

South American medicinal plants : botany, remedial properties, and general use / I. Roth, H. Lindorf. Berlin ; New York : Springer, c2002. -- p. 492.