138 
PHAKMACEUTICAL  NOTICES. 
New  Lebanon,  James  Long,  then  the  superintendent  of  their 
laboratory,  showed  me  a  resinous  matter  which  he  obtained 
from  colocynth,  and  which  he  called  colocynthin.  I  under- 
stood him  to  say  that  it  was  prepared  from  the  tincture  with  hot 
concentrated  alcohol,  by  evaporation  to  a  syrup,  and  precipitated 
by  water,  as  in  the  process  for  podophyllin. 
Another  preparation  is  a  yellowish  powder  sold  by  Keith  and 
Company  of  New  York,  under  the  same  name. 
A  third  form  of  this  preparation  was  described  by  the  pharma- 
ceutist who  had  it  as  resinous  alcoholic  extract  of  colocynth 
pulp,  without  any  pretence  of  its  being  the  pure  principle. 
A  fourth  form  of  "  colocynthin"  is  that  prepared  by  Charles 
Shivers  of  Philadelphia,  which  has  the  appearance  of  a  yel- 
lowish brown  orange-colored  resin  in  small  glistening  fragments, 
or  in  mass  of  a  darker  color.  When  in  powder  this  preparation 
is  straw-colored.  It  is  exceedingly  bitter,  and  entirely  soluble 
in  alcohol.  Although  a  resinous  body,  the  greatest  part  of  this 
<;  colocynthin  "  is  soluble  in  cold  water,  with  repeated  malaxa- 
tion  with  water,  leaving  a  putty-like  resin  undissolved,  which 
is  insoluble  in  water.  The  aqueous  solution  thus  obtained  is  not 
precipitated  by  subacetate  of  lead,  but  at  once  by  tannin,  and 
hence  this  contains  the  colocynthin  proper  of  Walz. 
It  is  made  by  a  process  similar  to  Mr.  Mouchon's  (see  Amer. 
Jour.  Pharm.,  vol.  iv.,  3rd  series,  page  167,)  by  passing  alcohol 
through  a  mixture  of  powdered  colocynth  and  animal  charcoal, 
and  evaporating  the  liquid  to  dryness.  Mr.  Shivers  informs  me 
that  he  obtains  about  three  ounces  from  a  pound  of  the  pow- 
dered pulp,  which  is  equivalent  to  five  or  six  drachms  from  a 
pound  of  crude  colocynth.  Mr.  Mouchon  obtained  only  about 
four  drachms,  and  describes  it  as  an  amorphous  garnet-colored 
resinoid  body — intensely  bitter. 
The  most  recent  investigation  of  the  constitution  of  colocynth 
pulp  is  by  Walz,  (see  vol.  vii.  1859,  page  331  of  this  Journal,) 
who  describes  colocynthin  as  a  golden-yellow  amorphous  sub- 
stance, precipitable  by  tannic  acid  from  a  solution  of  that  part 
of  the  alcoholic  extract  dissolved  by  cold  water,  after  being  freed 
from  interfering  matter  by  subacetate  of  lead  ;  it  is  highly  ac- 
tive—is a  glucoside,  decomposable  by  dilute  sulphuric  acid,  and 
is  insoluble  in  ether. 
