COLOCYNTHIS 105 



COLOCYNTHIS (Colocynth, Bitter Apple) 



Official in every edition of the U. S. P., from 1820 to 1910. 



Description: Persons familiar with the common 

 watermelon vine need no description of the plant which 

 produced colocynth apple, Citrullns Colocynthis, which 

 very closely resembles a watermelon vine bearing a 

 small, hard fruit with a bitter pulp. Naudin, a French 

 botanist, succeeded in crossing the colocynth vine and 

 the watermelon, producing fertile seed, thus demon- 

 strating that they are essentially the same species. 

 Remarkable is the relationship that exists between not 

 only this plant and the watermelon, but other plants 

 belonging to the Gourd family, such as the pumpkin, 

 the squash, the melons and the cucumber. In the latter 

 plant we also find a cathartic principle, similar to that 

 of the colocynth. The difference between the two 

 genera, citrullus and cucumis, is very slight. The 

 former has solitary sterile flowers and branched ten- 

 drils, the latter has clustered sterile flowers and simple 

 tendrils. 



The colocynth plant is a native of arid soils. It has 

 a large, fleshy, perennial root, which sends out slender, 

 tough, angular, scabrid vine-like stems. These usually 

 lie on the ground, for want of something upon which to 

 climb, but if opportunity presents, they climb over 

 shrubs and herbs by means of axillary branching ten- 

 drils. The leaves are angular, lobed, and are almost 

 the exact duplicate of watermelon leaves. The fruit 

 is globular, smooth, with a hard but thin rind, some- 

 thing like a gourd. It is filled with a soft, white pulp, 

 in which are imbedded numerous seed. The pulp is 

 the part used in medicine. The bitter juice has been 



