GAMBOGE 457 



GAMBOGE 



GAMBOGIA. A gum-resin obtained from Garcinia Hanburii 

 (B.P.). Nat. Ord. Guttifera. 



Gamboge, imported from Singapore, Siam, and Ceylon, 

 is the produce of a moderate-sized dioecious tropical tree, 

 and is obtained from incisions into the middle layer of the 

 bark, or by breaking the leaves and branchlets, when the 

 yellow milky juice exuding is collected in leaves, in cocoa- 

 nut shells, or in joints of bamboo, is transferred into flat 

 earthen vessels, and dried in the sun. It occurs in cylindri- 

 cal, solid or hollow rolls, four to eight inches long, two to 

 three inches in diameter, and in cakes ; breaks easily with 

 a conchoidal reddish-yellow fracture ; powder bright 

 yellow ; odourless, taste very acrid. It is feebly soluble 

 in water, makes with it a yellow emulsion, and is soluble 

 in alcohol and ether. It consists of 15 to 20 per cent, of 

 soluble gum, and about 70 of an active orange-yellow resin, 

 gambogic acid. It is largely used as a pigment. 



ACTIONS AND USES. It is a powerful irritant and drastic 

 hydragogue cathartic, inferior in activity only to croton 

 and elaterium. Slightly diuretic, it colours the urine 

 yellow. 



It undergoes solution in the alkaline intestinal juices, 

 and in large doses causes gastro-enteritis. Moiroud gave 

 horses six to twelve drachms, and found the dejections 

 frequent and fluid, the pulse irregular, the animal shivering 

 and anxious. Two drachms killed a sheep, two ounces and 

 a half had little effect upon a cow, but five ounces caused 

 dysentery, which continued for seventeen days. 



Gamboge is too drastic and uncertain to be safely given 

 to either horses or dogs. It causes profuse watery 

 discharges and increased peristalsis, and although 

 W. Rutherford's experiments demonstrate that it has no 

 special stimulant action on the liver, like all purgatives act- 

 ing on the small intestine it is a cholagogue, in the sense 

 that it promptly moves onwards the bile in the duodenum, 

 and thus prevents its reabsorption. It has no direct vermicide 

 effect, but produces diuresis, especially when given in small 



