The surface is purple-black or purple-brown, with obvious longitudinal grooves and small transverse cracks.
Fragile, easily broken, with blunt triangle cross section, dark purple edge and grayish white or light pink center.
Qi is weak and special; It tastes greasy, sweet first and then spicy.
Trait recognition
(1) The ergot nucleus is spindle-shaped, straight or slightly arched, with three blunt edges, 1-4cm long and 2-7mm wide. The skin is grayish purple to deep purple with fine transverse cracks and longitudinal grooves. It is hard and brittle, easy to break, flat in cross section and slightly obtuse triangle. Its edge is a thin layer of deep purple tissue, and its interior is light brown and white to red, and sometimes a star-shaped dark line can be seen in the center. The gas is weak, and the taste is slightly sweet first, then spicy.
(2) The nucleus of Euglena ergot is black and angular, about 6mm long and 0.7mm in diameter. I'm almost like ergot. It is best to be dry, large and uniform, with purple-brown color and white section.
Microscopic identification of ergot cross section:
Slightly triangular, the outer layer is a series of closely arranged dark purple hyphal cells, and the cell wall and its contents are blood red when exposed to acid and blue-purple when exposed to alkali (wheat red pigment reaction). The interior is composed of colorless hyphal cells with different thicknesses (called pseudoparenchyma), with a diameter of 3- 12μm, a thick wall and strong refraction. The cells in the central part are loose and have gaps, and the cell wall is made of chitin. Does not contain starch granules and calcium oxalate crystals.
Quality mark
This product contains total alkaloids, calculated by ergotoxine, not less than 0.2%; Water-soluble alkaloids, calculated by ergonovine, shall not be less than 0.03%.