A perennial can grow 5–60 cm tall, with alternately branching glaucous blue-green foliage. The leaves are ternately divided into round, lobed segments. The flowers are solitary on long stems, silky-textured, with four petals, each petal 2-6 cm long and broad; their color ranges from yellow to orange. The fruit is a slender dehiscent capsule 3-9 cm long, which splits in two to release the numerous small black or dark brown seeds.

Antispasmodic, sedative and analgesic

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PIER

Berberine, cryptopine, protopine, sanguinarine (shoot); chelerythrine (leaf); chelirubine, coptisine, succinic acid (root); codeine, cryptocavine, fumaric acid, fumarine, glaucine, morphine, violaxanthin, xanthophyll, zeaxanthin (plant); rutin (flower)

To relieve insomnia and nervousness, relieves pain, relaxes spasms and promotes perspiration (herb); to relieve toothache (watery sap); as a wash on the breasts to suppress the flow of milk in lactating females (root extract)

Use during pregnancy should be avoided as the major alkaloid cryptopine shows a stimulating effect on guinea pig uterus in vitro.