CALUMBA, or COLOMBO, very extensively used in medicine, is the root of cocculus palinatus, a herbaceous plant of the natural order menispermaceo (q.v.). It is said to derive its name from Colombo in Ceylon, although the C. now chiefly in use is the pro duce of Mozambique. The flowers in this genus have 12 sepals and petals in all, similar in appearance, and disposed in four rows. The male and female flowers are on sepa rate plants. a palmatus has nearly circular leaves with 5 to 7 lobes, on long hairy foot-stalks, and solitary axillary racemes of small green flowers, the racemes of the male plants branching. The fruit is a drupe, or 1-seeded berry-like fruit, about the size of a hazel-nut, densely clothed with hairs. The stem is annual and twining; the root perennial, consisting of clustered spindle-shaped fleshy tubers, with a brown warty epi dermis, and internally deep yellow. The plant is not cultivated: the root is collected where it grows wild in dense forests. It is dug up in Mar., cut into slices or short cylin drical pieces, and dried in the shade. In this state it appears in commerce, having a greenish-yellow tint, a very bitter taste, and a faint aromatic odor. Its bitterness is
ascribed to a somewhat narcotic principle called calumbine, and to berberine, an alkaloid originally discovered in the barberry (q.v.), which is also present in it. C. is regarded as one of the most useful stomachics and tonics. It is demulcent, not at all stimulant, and capable of being employed in cases in which almost every other tonic would be rejected by the stomach. It is sometimes given to allay vomiting. It has been found very useful in diarrhea and dysentery. It is administered in the form of powder, infu sion, or tincture. Similar properties seem to reside in the roots of the species of cocculus generally.—The very poisonous seed known by the name of cocculus Indicus (q.v.), belongs to a plant of a different but allied genus.—The root of frasera walteri is some times fraudulently substitutdd for C., and has been called American calumba root. It does not agree with C. in its properties, but, besides its very different appearance, it may be distinguished by its undergoing no such change of color when touched with tincture of iodine, as in true C. root is produced by the presence of starch. See FRASERA.