CRUDE DRUGS. 585 



colocynthitin, which occurs in small, white prisms; fixed oil in 

 pulp about 3 per cent., and in seeds about 15 per cent.; ash about 

 10 per cent, in pulp and about 3 per cent, in the seeds. 



Attempts have been made to grow Colocynth in England and 

 in New Mexico. The fruits are .much larger than the official, 

 and while very bitter appear to be less active than the fruits 

 obtained from wild plants. 



CASSIA FISTULA.— PURGING CASSIA.— The ripe fruit 

 of Cassia Fistula (Fam. Leguminosse), a. tree (p. 293) indig- 

 enous to India, and naturalized in tropical Africa, South Amer- 

 ica and the West Indies. The principal supply of the drug used 

 in this country comes from tropical America. 



Description. — Legume (Fig. 255), many-locular,'indehiscent, 

 cylindrical, 25 to 50 cm. long, 15 to 20 mm. in diameter; exter- 

 nally reddish-brown, apex acute or acuminate, base rounded, 

 sometimes with a woody pedicel about 15 mm. long and 4 mm. 

 in diameter, smooth, shiny, transversely striate, on one side a 

 longitudinal groove (the ventral suture), and on the other a 

 smooth line or slight ridge (the dorsal suture) ; pericarp hard 

 and woody; internally divided by transverse partitions into 

 numerous compartments about 5 mm. long, each containing a 

 brownish-black pulp and a single seed; seed anatropous, ovoid, 

 compressed, about 8 mm. long, 6 mm. wide, 4 mm. thick, light 

 brown, the raphe as a distinct line on one of the compressed 

 sides, internally light yellow, embryo curved and embedded in 

 the endosperm ; odor of pulp distinct, prune-like ; taste sweet. 



Constituents. — The fruit yields about 30 per cent, of pulp, 

 which contains 40 to 60 per cent, of sugar. The drug appar- 

 ently does not owe its laxative properties to any of the anthra- 

 quinone derivatives found in senna and related plants. 



Allied Plants. — The legumes of related species of Cassia 

 found in tropical America are similar to those of Cassia Fistula, 

 and are also used in medicine. 



VANILLA. — The fruit of Vanilla planifolia (Fam. Orchid- 

 acese), a perennial climber (Fig^. 133) indigenous to Eastern Mex- 

 ico, and now cultivated (p. 245) in various tropical islands, 

 including the Seychelles, Mauritius, Java, as well as in the prov- 

 inces of Vera Cruz and Oaxaca, in Mexico, from whence the best 



