Spec. Plant Willd. i. 611. Cl. 21. Ord. 8. Monoecia Monadelphia. Nat.ord. Cucurbitaceae, 6r. 1741. Male. Calyx five-toothed. Corolla five-parted. Filaments three.

Female. Calyx five- toothed. Corolla five -parted. Pistil three-cleft. Seeds of the gourd argute. Sp.1. C. Colocynthis:3 Bitter Cucumber. Med. Pot. 3d edit. 189..

* t.71. Officinal. Colocynthis, Lond. Cucumeris Colocynthidis pulpa, Edin. Colocynthis; fructus pulpa, Dub. The pulp of Coloquintida, or Bitter Cucumber.

Syn. Coloquinte (F.), Koloquinten (G.), Koloquint (Dutch, Dan. & Swed.}, Coloquintida (I.), Pepinero Coloquintida (S. & Portug.), Hunzil (Arab.), In-draini (H.), Indravaruni (San.), Makkul (Ben.), Peycocmutikai (Tam.), Dahuk (Egypt.).

This plant is an annual, a native of Turkey and Nubia4, flowering from May till August, and much resembling the cucumber in its herbage. The root is branching, and strikes deep into the ground. The stems are trailing, beset with rough hairs; the leaves are on long petioles, of a triangular form, variously sinuated, obtuse, of a fine green colour on the upper surface, and whitish and rough beneath. The flowers are solitary, axillary, and of a yellow colour. The calyx of

1 Mat. Med. of Hindostan, 4to. Madras, 1813. The solution of the oil in oil of turpentine produces a pustulous eruption when it is applied to the skin.

2 Journ. of Science, vol. xiii. p. 69. 3 Kλwukθuvws Dioscoridis.

4 Burckhardt, in his Travels through Nubia, 4to, p. 184., says, "Theground was covered with thejcjoloo,uintida, a plant very common in every part of this desert (Wady Om-gat)W^* the male flowers is bell-shaped; the corolla the same shape with the limb, divided into five-pointed segments; and the anthers, which stand on three short filaments, are long, erect, and adhere together on the outer side. The female flower is like the male, but the filaments have no anthers. The fruit is a round berry or pepo, the size of a small orange, yellow, and smooth on the outside when ripe; trilocular, each cell containing many ovate, compressed, whitish seeds, enveloped by a white spongy pulp.

When the fruit is ripe and yellow, it is peeled and dried in a stove; and in this state it is brought to this country. When it is larger than a St. Michael's orange, and has black acute-pointed seeds, it is not good.

Qualities.-Dried coloquintida is inodorous; but has an extremely bitter nauseous taste, and the pulp feels mucilaginous when chewed. Independent of the seeds, it is altogether composed of a very light, easily torn, white, cellular matter. Ether, alcohol, and water extract its virtues. The infusion in boiling water has a golden-yellow colour, gelatinizes as it cools, and resembles, except in colour and taste, mucilage of quince-seed. This mucilage is soluble in cold water. Alcohol and all the acids coagulate the solution, which is precipitated by solutions of acetate and subacetate of lead, and nitrate of silver. Sulphate of iron strikes with it a deep olive colour.

Its colour is rendered also greenish by solution of potassa, which precipitates it: but the mucilage is dissolved by solution of ammonia. Ether, digested on the pulp, deposits, when evaporated on the surface of water, a white, opaque, bitter resin, and some extractive; from which the water acquires the bitter taste of the fruit, and precipitates solutions of potassa, nitrate of silver, and acetate of lead. From these experiments colocynth pulp should consist chiefly of mucus, resin, a bitter principle, and some gallic acid. M. Vauquelin found that an alcoholic tincture formed from the residue of a strong decoction of colocynth, when evaporated and washed with a little water to free it from some acetate of potassa, yields a brittle orange-yellow substance, partially soluble only in water, the residue being a white filamentous mass, changing to yellow. This substance he has named Colocynthine; and he regards it as the active principle of the drug.1 Colocynthine is more soluble in alcohol than in water.

It is precipitated by infusion of nutgalls.

1 Journ. de Pharm. 1824, p. 416. A A 3

Medical properties and uses.-The pulp of this fruit is a very powerful drastic cathartic. It was employed by the ancients in dropsical, lethargic, and melancholic affections; but always with caution, on account of its violent effects. Orfila, from his own observations, asserts that one or two drachms of it only, applied to the cellular tissue of the interior of the thigh of a man, produced death in the space of twenty-four hours.1 When given alone, even in moderate doses, it purges vehemently, producing violent gripings, bloody dejections, and, not unfrequently, convulsions and inflammation of the bowels. The watery decoction, or the infusion, is much less violent in its operation, and has been recommended in worm cases. It is scarcely ever given alone in any form, but is generally united with other purgatives to quicken their operation. The dose is from gr. j. to grs. v. triturated with almonds, or gum, or some farinaceous matter.

Officinal preparations.-Extractum Colocynthidis, L.D. Extrac-tum Colocynthidis comp. L. D. Piluae Colocynthidis comp. E. D. Pilula Aloes cum Colocynthide, D.