Colocynth

a plant of the squash or gourd family. It is known also as coloquintida, bitter apple, and, by botanists, as Cucumis Colocynthis. The plant springs from a perennial root. The foliage resembles that of the cucumber. Like the melon, squash, pumpkin, cucumber, and other members of the family, the colocynth produces two kinds of flowers, one bearing stamens, the other bearing pistils. The fruit resembles an orange in size and color. The rind is thick, light, and spongy. The pulp is exceedingly bitter. There are from 200 to 300 seeds in each fruit. In time of need the Arabs use the seed for food. A coarse oil is pressed from the seeds. The bitter pulp is peeled, freed from seeds, and dried. In this form it is the colocynth of the druggist. It is a drastic purgative, of which an herbalist's book of the eleventh century says: "For stirring of the inwards, take the inward neshness of the fruit, without the kernels, by weight of two pennies; give it, pounded in lithe beer, to be drunk; it stirreth the inwards." In medicine colocynth is given usually with aloes and other drugs. The commercial article is obtained from Spain and Asia Minor. The colocynth ranges from the Cape Verde Islands, through Mediterranean Africa and the Grecian Archipelago and Asia Minor, as far east as Ceylon and India.