COL'OCYNTH (OF. coloquinte, from Lat. colocynthis, from Gk. soNotcupOis, ko/okyn this, colocynth, from seXoKovOn, kolokynthe, pump kin), or BITTER APPLE. A well-known medicine, much used as a purgative. It is the dried pulp of the colocynth gourd, colquintida, bitter apple, or bitter cucumber, a globose fruit about the size of an orange, of a uniform yellow color, with a smooth, thin. solid rind. The plant which pro duces it, Citrullus colocynthis, is allied to the cucumber (q.t.). It is common in Turkey, the Grecian Archipelago, various parts of Asia, and in Africa and Spain. which last country supplies no small part of the colocynth of commerce. The fruit is gathered when it begins to turn yellow, peeled, and dried quickly either in a stove or in the sun. It is chiefly in the form of a dry extract that it. is used in medicine. It owes its properties to a bitter principle called colocynthin, a glucoside. It is a curious, though not unique. fact that the seeds of the colocynth plant, produced in the midst of its medicinal pulp, are perfectly bland, and they even form an important article of food in the north of Africa. The name false colocynth is some times given to the orange gourd (Cucurbita aurantia), sometimes cultivated as an orna mental plant in our gardens, on account of its globose, deep orange fruit. The pulp of the
fruit possesses the properties of colocynth, hut in a milder degree. Colocynth is generally ad ministered in the form of pills, in which the extract is associated with aloes, scammony, and in some cases with calomel, or with extract of hyoscyamus. In small doses colocynth acts as a safe and useful purgative; and, when accom panied by hyoscyamus, the latter prevents much of the pain and griping which are attendant on the use of colocynth by itself. It is a drastic purgative, acting upon the whole intestine, and is used only in obstinate cases of chronic con stipation. Colocynth is an ingredient of some powders for destroying moths. In large doses colocynth is a poison, causing severe inflam mation of the stomach and intestine. The medicinal dose of colocynth is from 2 to grains; that of the official extract of colocynth, from to 2 grains; that of the compound ex tract of eolocynth, from 5 to 15 grains. It is sometimes administered in the form of pills.