HERBA HVmiOUOTYLES. 2!)? 



the alcoliolic extract of colocynth wliich is soluble in ether but not in 

 \vater. ^Purified with boiling alcohol, colocynthitin formti a tastclc.s.s 

 crystalline po^vder. 



The pulp perfectly freed from seeds and dried at 100' C, RfTonlod 

 us 11 per cent of ash; the seeds alone jneld only 27 per cent. Th<'y 

 have, even wlien crushed, but a faint bitter taste, and contain 17 per 

 cent, of fat oil. 



The fresh leaves of the plant if rubbed emit a very unj)leasaut 

 smell 



Commerce— The drug is imported from Mogador, Spain and Syria. 



Uses — In the form of an extract made with Mcak alcoliol, cTnd 

 combined with aloes and scammony, colocj'nth is much einployc^l as a 

 purgative. The seeds, roasted or boiled, arc the miserable food of some 

 of the poorest tribes of the Sahara/ 



The people of the Berber upon the Nile make a curious application 

 for the tar they obtain from the fruit. The latter is heated in an 

 earthen vessel with a hole in it; the tar drips through to another 

 vessel and is fit for smearing leather water-bags. The bad smell of the 

 tar (and of the leaves) prevents the camels from cutting open the 

 water-bags.^ 



Substitutes — Cucuniis trigoiiiis Roxb. (G. Fseudo-colocynthiH 

 Roylc), a plant of the plains of Northern India, with spherical or 

 elongated, sometimes obscurely trigonous, bitter fruits, prostate roothvj 

 stems, 



been mistaken tor it. Another species 



Jind known to the natives of India as Hill Colocynth, has oval 



oblong bitter fruits, but leaves entirely unlike those of the CUralliLs 



Oolocynthis. 



and deeply divided leaves, resembles the colocynth gourd and has 

 listaken for it. Another species named by Roylc C. JIardvjicIcii, 



UMBELLIFERJ5. 



HERBA HYDROCOTYLES. 



Indian Hydrocotyle, Indian Pennyivort ; F. Bevilacqua. 



Botanical Origin— Ilydrocobjh asiatica L., a small creeping hcrh,"' 

 ^vith slender jointed stems, common in moist places throughout tropical 

 Asia and Africa, ascending in Abyssinia to elevations of 0,000 feet. It 

 also occurs in America from South Carolina to Valdivia, in the West 

 Indies, the islands of the Pacific, New Zealand, and Australia. 



History — Hydrocotyle is called in Sanslcrib nianduha-parnl, in 

 Hindi hladahhudi The former name denotes various plants, hut is 

 ^^noiight to refer in Susruta to the plant under notice (Dr. Rice). It 

 ^vas known to Rheedc* l>y its Malyalim name ofCodagam (or KvMlam), 

 and also to Rumpliius.-' It has been long used medicinally by the 



''^ee my pai)er on Cnrumis Colocyntlih Grant expedition, Journ. Linn. Soc. xxix. 



considered as a nutritive plant in the pt. 2 (1873) 77, 



p a"1 ^^^^ Pharmacie, 201 (187-2) 235.— * i'ig- i" Bentlcy and Trimcu, Med. 



\^- F. > \ ] ^^^^^^^^ ^^^ 24, ] 877. 



Col. Grant, Botany of the Si)eke and * Hort. Mai. x. tab. 46. 



e Jlerh. Amboin. v. 1G9. 



