CUC—CUC 
‘No. 203.—Cucumis cotocyntuts. Bitter cucum- 
ber—bitter apple. Coloquintida. Colocynth. 
The pulp of the fruit. oe ? 
Synonym—Colocynthis fructu rotundo major. (Baubin.) 
xorcuuy Sic, xorcxuyda anyos of the Greek authors. & is 
Cl. Monoecia. Ord. Syngenesia. Nat. ord. Cucurbitacee. 
Cabinet specimen, Jeff. Coll. No. 236—figure of the plant, _ 
No. 237 
Fruit a round pomum, the size of an orange, divided intoS _ 
cells, abounding with a pulpy matter, separated every 
where by membranous texture, including many ovate, 
compressed, white seeds. The colour of the fruit is at 
first green, afterward yellowish, in proportion as it ripens, 
or streaked with yellow and green, and yery smooth, co- 
vered with a fine, light, and hard bark. It is said, that — 
when the fruit is larger than a St. Michael’s orange, and 
the seeds pointed, long, and narrow, and tipped with 
black, it is not good—see Paris (Pharm.) and others.—. ee 
This is incorrect. © : 
Native, it is believed, originally of the Levant and the Islands 
of Greece. It is imported into Europe and this country, 
for medical purposes, from Turkey, and was cultivated in 
England in the time of Turner. 
- Mepicat Prorentizs ann Uses. After pomene, veered 
the pulp of Colocynth, the Indians send it to Aleppo, from 
whence we receive it dry, spongy, light, of a faint disa- 
greeable odour, of an acrid, disagreeable, and excessively — 
bitter taste. According to Carthusa, this pulp contains 
- near one-half of its weight of mucilage, and a resinous 
_ matter, which possesses, in a high degree, the irritating 
and purgative qualities of the Colocynth. The mucilage 
is so tenacious as to resist the filter, and pass with difficulty 
through a strainer; and is readily formed, by the addition 
to the pulp, of boiling water, Even a tr. made of proof- 
spirit, is so slimy as to resist the filter. The watery decoc- 
tion, inspissa yields an extract which purges strongly, 
but with less irritation than the pulp in its dried state, and 
with greater safety. 
It isa drastic, irritating, and rather dangerous cathartic. 
The violence of its action is well attested, having produced 
poisoning in many cases: violent colic, bloody evacuations, 
pains and sweats, convulsions, erosions and ulcerations of = 
the intestines, are phenomena which have not uncommon- 
ly followed its exhibition. Hence Carthusa proposed to 
banish it from the Materia Medica. 
. Used in serous apoplexy, 
Se acl 
Pee 
___ Hoffman only employed it in the most intractable and — 
- Sesperate cases of disease. 
