Also 6 colocinthis, 7 colocynthis. [ad. L. colocynthis (formerly also in Eng. use, with pl. -ides, and variant -ida), a. Gr. κολοκυνθίς (Dioscorides). In med.L. the Gr. κυ was commonly represented by qui, hence the forms COLOQUINT, -IDA, q.v.]
The Bitter-apple (Citrullus Colocynthis), a widely cultivated plant of the Gourd family, the fruit of which is about the size of an orange, and contains a light spongy and extremely bitter pulp, furnishing the well-known purgative drug. Also the fruit of this plant, and the drug prepared from it.
α. in Latin forms.
1565. J. Hall, Hist. Expost., 49. By a little meale, the bitternesse of colocinthis was cured in the potage pot.
1609. Bible (Douay), 2 Kings iv. 39. He found as it were a wilde vine, and gathered of it the colocynthides of the field [Vulg. colocynthidas agri].
1676. Grew, Anat. Plants, 240. The great Cathartick power of Colocynthis.
1681. trans. Willis’ Rem. Med. Wks., Vocab., Colocynthida, Or Coloquintida, a bitter purging Gourd or Apple.
β. colocynth.
a. 1667. Jer. Taylor, Suppl. Course Serm. (1678), 93. Abuse your Flocks, and feed them with Colocynths and Hemlocke.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Coloquintida, Troches made of colocynth are called troches of alhandal.
1875. H. C. Wood, Therap. (1879), 469. Colocynth is rarely, if ever, used alone, but is given in combination with the other drastics, or with milder purgatives, to increase their activity.
c. 1878. Oxf. Bible Helps, 215. The colocynth … grows wild in profusion about Gilgal. It is supposed also to be the vine of Sodom.
b. attrib., as colocynth-pill, -pith, -pulp, etc.
1811. A. T. Thomson, Lond. Disp. (1818), 704. Compound Colocynth Pills. Take … colocynth pulp, four parts.
Hence Colocynthein, a resin-like substance formed on boiling colocynthin with sulphuric acid. Colocynthite = COLOCYNTHIN. Colocynthitin (see quot.).
1863–72. Watts, Dict. Chem., s.v. Colocynthin. Colocynthin boiled with acids is resolved, according to Walz, into sugar … and colocynthein.
1882. Syd. Soc. Lex., Colocynthein.
1838. T. Thomson, Chem. Org. Bodies, 709. Colocynthite. This bitter principle is contained in the fruit of the cucumis colocynthis.
1863–72. Watts, Dict. Chem., s.v. Colocynthitin, [When] the alcoholic extract of bitter apple … is treated with water, colocynthitin remains undissolved. It is soluble in ether.
