Plant belonging to the barberryfamily with typical leaves reminiscent of a duck's foot, hence the name shield-shaped foot leaf or duck's foot. The shield-shaped, blue-green shiny, up to 40 cm in diameter leaf has between seven and nine lobes, which in shape resemble a duck's foot.
The yellow elongated fruit, up to 5.5 cm in size, is edible and is also called wild lime. Except for the fruit, all other parts of the plant are poisonous.
Podophyllum is known mainly for its toxic resin: the dried rhizome and the attached roots contain the toxic footleaf resin (podophyllin; podophyllotoxin). This is formed only after the roots are dried, the toxicity increases during storage and reaches the highest toxicity after 2 years. Podophyllin has cytostatic, antifungal and virusstatic effects. In medicine used especially for the therapy of condylomas.
In folk medicine the root was used both as a laxative and for the therapy of worm infestation, in high doses also for suicide.