N. O. OUCUlttfiTACI'hlS. 
599 
Habitat . — Cultivated throughout India, and also very often 
apparently wild. 
A scabrid climber. In the fields of Afghanistan, it trails 
along the ground extensively. Leaves 2} by scarcely 2in. in 
the typical wild very scabrous form, larger in cultivated forms 
approaching C. vulgaris, ovate, middle segment compound 
pinnatifid. Petiole lin. Petals {-in., obovate, light-yellow. 
Ovary villous. Eruit smooth, variegated, green and white 
globose, 2{-3in. diam. 
Parts used .— The fruit and root. 
Use . — Sanskrit writers describe the fruit as bitter, acrid, 
cathartic and useful in biliousness, constipation, fever and 
worms. They also mention the root as a useful cathartic in 
jaundice, ascites, enlargement of the abdominal viscera, urinary 
diseases, rheumatism, etc. 
Mahomedan writers consider it to be a very drastic purga- 
tive, removing phlegm from all parts of the system, and direct 
the fruit, leaves and root to be used. The drug is prescribed 
when the bowels are obstinately costive from disease or lesion 
of the nervous centres, also in dropsy, jaundice, colic, worms, 
elephantiasis, Ac. Its irritant action upon the uterus is noticed, 
and fumigation with it is said to be of use for bringing on the 
menstrual flow. The author of the Hakbzan tells us that the 
seeds are purgative, and mentions their use for preserving the 
hair from turning grey (Dymockh 
In the Concau, the fruit and root, with or without nux- 
vomica, is rubbed into a paste with water and applied to boils 
and pimples. In rheumatism, equal parts of the root and long 
pepper are given in pill. A. paste of the root is applied to the 
enlarged abdomen of children (l)ymock). 
It is officinal in both Indian and British Pharmacopoeias. 
From experiments with coloeyntliin obtained from Citndhis colocyuthis, 
Messrs. Naylor and Clfappel find that this substance is capable of hydrolysis, 
and that it yields, amongst other products, colocynthein, elatorin, and 
dextrose. They were also able to obtain coloeyntliin in a crystalline form. 
| Pliarui. ,1. l'J07 Yol. 70 pp. 117-118.] 
The seeds of the wild coloeynth arc used for food in Sind and Baluchis- 
tan ; the kernels arc roasted or boiled and eaten with dates. The seeds 
