600 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



yield to solvents about 17 per cent, of yellowish-red oil having an indine 

 value of 129 3, and 92*2 per cent, of fatty acids melting at 29°. Grimaldi and 

 Prussia, in 1909, found the oil of colocynth seeds to have the specific gravity 

 of 0'9289, solidifying point 14°, and iodine value 120*27. Power and Moore 

 (1910) separated from the oil a phytosterol, melting between 158° and 160° C. 

 The oil has a bitter taste if made from tbe undecorticated seeds (Hooper). 



545. C. vulgaris, Schrad., h.f.b.i., ii., 621, 



Syn. — Cucurbita citrullus, Linn. Roxb. 700. 

 Vern.--Ta.Thnz (H.) ; Tarmuj (B.); Tarbuj, Kdlingad or 

 Kalingan (Bomb.) ; Pitcha-pullam (Tarn.). 



Habitat. — Cultivated throughout India. 



A climbing or trailing, hispid annual. Stems branching, 

 angular ; tendrils 2-fid, firm ; pubescent. Petioles about 2in., 

 nearly round, villous ; blade of leaf 3-5in. long by 2-3in. broad, 

 triangular-ovate, cordate, deeply trifid ; segments pinnatifid, 

 terminal one larger ; lobes undulate or lobulate, pale-green above, 

 ashy beneath. Flowers monaecious, axillary, solitary, rather large. 

 Male flowers : — peduncle falling short of the petiole ; Calyx 

 campanulate, lobes narrowly lanceolate, equalling the tube ; 

 Corolla about an inch in diam., greenish outside, and villous ; 

 segments ovate, oblong, obtuse, 5-nerved. Stamens 3, anthers 

 free. Female flowers : — Calyx-tube, fused with the ovary, con- 

 tracted above, lobes and Corolla as in the male ; ovary ovoid ; 

 densely villous ; style short, stigmas 3. Fruit large, ovoid, pale 

 or dark-green or mottled, sometimes covered with a glaucous 

 waxy bloom ; flesh white, yellowish or red, at times deeply pink. 

 Seeds compressed, and usually margined, varying much in 

 shape and colour. Some of the varieties grown in Alibag in the 

 Kolaba District, have a glaneous green globose fruit. (K. R.K.) 



The wild plant may be either bitter or sweet without any 

 observable structural differences. The bitter form comes very 

 close to C. colocynthis, when that species is cultivated 

 (Watt). 



Uses. — The seeds are used as a cooling medicine. In 

 Bombay, they are considered cooling, diuretic and strengthening. 



The juice is used with cumin and sugar as a cooling drink 

 (Dymock). The Vytians prescribe the juice of the fruit to 

 quench thirst, and also an antiseptic in typhus fever (Ainslie). 



