COLOCYNTH, Coloquintida, or Bitter Apple, Citrullus or Cucumis Colocynthis, a plant of the natural order Cucurbitaceae or Gourds. The flowers are unisexual; the male blossoms have five stamens and sinuous anthers, the female have reniform stigmas, and a 3 to 6 celled ovary. The fruit is round, and about the size of an orange; it has a thick yellowish rind, and a light, spongy, and very bitter pulp, which furnishes the colocynth of druggists. The seeds, which number from 200 to 300, and are disposed in vertical rows on the three parietal placentae of the fruit, are flat and ovoid, and dark-brown; they are used as food by some of the tribes of the Sahara, and a coarse oil may be expressed from them. The foliage resembles that of the cucumber, and the root is perennial. The plant has a wide range, being found in Ceylon, India, Persia, Arabia, Syria, North Africa, the Grecian Archipelago, the Cape Verd Islands, and the south-east of Spain. The term pakkuotsh, translated “wild gourds” in 2 Kings iv. 39, is thought to refer to the fruit of the colocyuth; but, according to Celsius, it signifies a plant known as the squirting cucumber, Ecbdlíum purgans. The commercial colocynth consists of the peeled aud dried fruits, which are imported from Aleppo, Smyrna, Mogador, Spain, and other localities. In the preparation of the drug, the seeds are always removed from the pulp. Its active principle is an intensely bitter glucoside, colocyntìdn, C 56 H 84 O 23 , soluble in water, ether, and alcohol, and decomposable by acids into glucose and a resin, colo-cyntheìn, C 40 H 54 O 13 . Colocynth is a drastic purgative, and in large doses the powdered drug or its decoction has an inflammatory action on the intestines, and may produce fatal effects. It is administered in combination ...