294. CUCURBITACE.E. 



Elaterium occurs in irregular cake-like fragments, liglit, friable, and 

 opaque ; when new, of a bright pale green, becoming by age greyish and 

 exhibiting minute crystals on the surface. It has a herby tea-like 

 odour and a very bitter taste. The produce is extremely small : 240 lb. 

 of fruit gathered at Mitcham, 10th August 1868, yielded 4f ounces of 

 elaterium - 0'123 per cent. 



Elaterium consists, according to Pereira, of Elaterin, to which the 

 activity of the drug is due, contaminated with green colouring matter, 

 cellular tissue, and starch, together with a little of the residue of the 

 bitter liquor from which these substances were deposited. Yet, in our 

 opinion, this description is not applicable to the best varieties of elater- 

 ium. We have examined elaterium carefully prepared in the labora- 

 tory of Messrs. Allen and Hanburys, London, and a fine specimen 

 imported from Malta. Both are devoid of starch, as well as of cellular 

 tissue, but were seen to be largely made up of crystals. The first 

 sample contained 12 per cent, of water, and yielded after drying, 8'4 

 per cent, of ash. 



The most interesting principle of elaterium is Elaterin, C^H^O^, 

 discovered about the year 1831 by Morries, and independently by 

 Hennell. The best method of obtaining it, according to our experience, 

 is to exhaust elaterium with chloroform. From this solution, a white 

 crystalline deposit of elaterin is immediately separated by addition of 

 ether. It should be washed with a little ether, and recrystallized from 

 chloroform. We have thus obtained 836 per cent, of pure elaterin 

 from the above-mentioned elaterium of London, and 27"6 per cent, from 

 that of Malta. Elaterin crystallizes in hexagonal scales or prisms ; it 

 has an extremely bitter, somewhat acrid taste. It is readily soluble in 

 boiling alcohol, amylic alcohol, bisulphide of carbon, or chloroform. Its 

 alcoholic solutions are neutral and are not precipitated by tannin, nor 

 by any metallic solution. It is but very little coloured by cold concen- 

 trated sulphuric acid. 



Elaterin is the drastic principle of Ecballiiirti; if to its boiling- 

 alcoholic solution, solid caustic potash is added, the liquid thus obtained 

 is stated by Buchheim (1872) to be no longer precipitable by water. 

 The elaterin is then in fact converted into an acid body, which may be 

 separated by supersaturating the solution with a mineral acid. The 

 principle thus obtained has been found by Buchheim to be devoid of 

 drastic power. 



The fresh juice of the fruits was found by Kohler (1869) to contain 

 95 per cent, of water, 3 to 3"5 of organic and 1 to 1"6 of inorganic con- 

 stituents. The same chemist observed that the percentage of elaterin 

 gradually diminished as the season advanced, until in the month of 

 September he was unable to obtain any of it whatever. 



Walz (1859) found in the juice of the fruits and herb of EcballiuTn, 

 as well as in that of Cucumis Prophetaruni L., a second crystallizable 

 bitter principle, Prophetin, and the amorphous substances Echallin or 

 Elateric Acid, Hydro-elaterin, and Elateride, all of which require 

 further examination.^ Prophetin is a glucoside, — not so the other 

 principles. The four together constitute, according to Walz, 87 per 

 cent, of elaterium, which moreover contains about the same percentage 

 of pectic matter. 



1 Gmelin'a Chemistry, xvii. (1866) 335-367. 



