GAMBOGE, giim-bryj' or -booj', a gum resin derived from Garcinia cambogia, a member of the order Guttiferm The gamboge tree it self is a native of Siam, Cochin-China, Cam bodia (which gives the drug its name), from which places the drug is imported to Europe and to the United States. Other forms of gamboge that are rarely seen in the American market are found in India, China and the Asiatic Islands. The gum-resin is obtained by cutting or wounding the trunks of the trees causing a bright yellow juice to flow. This is collected, usually in bamboo joints, and hardens naturally, or is dried over a fire, until a solid mass results, which generally takes the shape of the collecting vessel. In the drug market pipe gamboge, press gamboge and cake gamboge are recognized. Pipe gamboge is preferred be cause it is usually clean. As a pigment for painting, gamboge has been known for cen turies and as a purgative it has been used in China as long as history gives any definite information.
The gum-resin contains a large amount of gum, 15 to 20 per cent and 70 to 80 per cent of a yellow resin, gambogic acid, on which its purgative properties depend. The formula of gambogic acid is C.4.112$0. Taken into the body in doses of from two to five grains, it acts as a very active hydragogue cathartic, producing numerous watery stools, with much griping. It is principally valuable when combined with some other drug that tends to diminish the pain and it is one of the most important in gredients in the compound cathartic pill of the United States Pharmacopoeia, which contains one-quarter of a grain of the resin. Overdoses cause violent poisoning with intense prostration.