FRUCTUS COLOCYNTHIDIS. 295 



Uses — Squirting cucumbers are only employed for making 

 elaterium, which is a very powerful hydragogue cathartic.^ Elaterin 

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

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

 use with advantasre. 



FRUCTUS COLOCYNTHIDIS. 



Golocynth, Goloquintida, Bitter Apple; F. Coloquinte; G. Coloqwinnihe. 



Botanical Origin — CitrulliiS Colocynthis Schrader (Cucumis Colo- 

 cynthis L.) — The colocynth gourd Ls 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 

 Ceylon, Persia as far north as the Caspian, 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-east of Spain and Portugal. Finally, 

 it is said to have been collected in Japan. 



History — Colocynth was familiar to the Greek and Roman, as well 

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

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

 of the 11th century,^ was not then imknown in Britain. The drug 

 was collected in Spain at an early period, as is evident from an Arabic 

 calendar of a.d. 961.^ 



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

 mentioned in the 14th century as one of the more important products 

 of the island.* Tragas (1-552) 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 Ught, pithy, nearly white baUs, which 

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

 in it. This pulp is nearly inodorous, but has an intensely bitter taste, 

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

 The balls are generally more or less broken ; when dried too slowly 

 they have a light brown colour. 



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

 which project to the centre of the fruit, then divide and turn back, 

 forming two branches directed towards one another. OA^ng to this 

 structure, the fruit easily breaks up vertically into 3 wedges in each of 

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



^Clutterbuck says | of a grain purges » Le Calendrier de Cordoue, public par R. 



\-iolently. Dozy, Leyde, 1873. 92. 



■^ Ck)ckayne, LeecMoms, etc, i. (1865) * De Mas Latrie, JJist. de Vile de Cliyprf, 



325. iii. (1852-61) 498. 



