FRITCTUS COLOCYNTHIDIS. £D5 



Uses — • Squirting cucumbers are only cmplojxd for making 

 elateriuia, which is a very powerful hyJragogue cathartic.' Elatoriii 

 is not employed in medicine, but seeing how much elatcrium is liable 

 to vary from climate or season, it might probably be introduced into 

 use with advantage. 



FRUCTUS COLOCYNTHIDIS. 



Colocyntli, Coloquintida, Bitter Ajiple; F, Coloquintc; G. Coloquinfhc. 



Botanical Origin — CitruUtis Colocynthis Schrader (Ciicinnis Cofo- 

 ojntkis L.) — The colocjTith gourd is a slender scabrous plant with a 

 perennial root, native of warm and dry regions in the Old World, over 

 which it has an extensive area. 



Commencing eastward, it occurs in abundance in the arid districts 

 of the Punjab and Sind, in sandy places on the Coromandel coast, in 

 Ce^'lon, Persia as far north as the Ca.spian, in Arabia (Aden), Syria, 

 and in some of the Greek islands. It is found in immense quantities 

 in Upper Egypt and Nubia, spreading itself over sand hillocks of the 

 desert after each rainy season. It further extends throughout North 

 Africa to Morocco and Senegambia, in the Cape de Verd Islands, and 

 on maritime sands in the south-cast of Spain and Portugal. Finally, 

 it is said to have been collected in Japan. 



History— Colocynth was familiar to the Greek and Roman, as M-ell 

 as to the Arabian physicians; it also occurs in Susruta ("Indravarunl"); 

 and if we may judge by the mention of it in an Anglo-Saxon herbal 

 of the nth century ,2 w^as not then unknown in Britain. The drug 

 was collected in Spain at an early period, as is evident from an AraV)ic 

 calendar of a.d. 961.3 



The plant has been long cultivated in Cyprus, and its fruit is 

 mentioned in the 1 4th centmy as one of the more important products 

 of the island.^ Tragus (1552) figured the plant, and stated that the 

 fruit is imported from Alexandria. 



Description— The colocynth plant bears a gourd of the size "and 

 shape of an orange, having a smooth, marbled-green surface. It is 

 sometimes imported simply dried, in which case it is of a brown 

 colour ; but far more usually it is found in the market peeled with a 

 knife and dried. It then forms light, pithy, nearly white balls, which 

 consist of the dried internal pulp of the fruit with the seeds imbedded 

 "1 it. This pulp is nearly inodorous, but has an intensely bitter ta-stc, 

 perceptible by reason of its dust when the drug is slightly handled. 

 The balls are generally more or less broken ; when dried 



tney Jiave a lisht brown colour. 



too slowly 



The seeds are disposed in vertical rows on 3 thick parietal placentre, 

 wliich project to the centre of the fruit, then divide aiid_ turn back, 

 lorming two branches directed towards one another. Owm^r to this 

 •'structure, the fruit easily breaks up vertically into 3 wedgos in each ot 

 ^nich are lodged 2 rows of dark brown seeds. The seeds, of which a 



' Clutterbuck says i of a grain purges * Le Cakwhkrih Cordons, pul>lie pai' R- 



Violently. "' * *= ^ * j)o7.y, Leyile, 18<3. 92. 



\Cockayne, Leechdoim, etc., i. (18G5) ^ De M a.s Latrie, //.«<. c^e TWe Je C/w'"', 



^-^- iii. (1852-Gl) 498. 



