Colocynthis

- VERMEULEN Frans
Colocynthis plant
Coloc.
For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah:
their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter ...
[Deuteronomy 32:32]
Signs
Citrullus colocynthis. Vine of Sodom. Bitter Apple. Wild Gourd.
N.O. Cucurbitaceae.
CLASSIFICATION Colocynthis belongs to the gourd family or Cucurbitaceae, a family of some 700 species in 120 genera. Highly specialized in habit, floral structure and biochemistry, the Cucurbitaceae generally are classified in a single-family order. Their botanical relationships are completely obscure and they are unrelated to the bulk of families amongst which they were once placed, in or near the Campanulales. ... Bitter substances, known as cucurbitacins, are widespread in the family. Many of the edible species occur in both bitter [inedible] and non-bitter [edible] variants. 1 A group of tetracyclic triterpenes, the bitter principles of cucurbits have antineoplastic and anti-gibberellin activities. [Gibberellins are plant-growth regulators.]
DISTRIBUTION Found in abundance in the tropics - particularly in rain forest areas of South America and wood-, grass- and bushland areas of Africa -, the family consists chiefly of trailing or climbing herbs with very rapid growth and an abundance of [milky] sap in their stems and other tissues. The family is poorly represented in Australasia and all temperate regions. Most members of the family do not tolerate frost or cold soil. Due to their great sensitiveness to temperatures near freezing, their geographic distribution and area of cultivation is limited. The family includes such economically important food plants as pumpkin, cucumber, gherkin, watermelon, muskmelon, summer squash, winter squash, chayote, gourd, courgette, and cassabanana. The fruit in most species is a fleshy, many-seeded berry with a tough rind, often attaining considerable size. The fruits of some wild species are important sources of food and water in the desert areas of southern Africa.

Colocynthis friut
 HISTORY Archaeological evidence has indicated that cucurbits were present in ancient and prehistoric cultures. Lagenaria was associated with man as early as 12,000 BC in Peru. Archaeological expeditions in the Oaxaca region of Mexico have reported Cucurbita pepo to be associated with man as early as 8500 BC and cultivated by 4050 BC. Written Chinese records describing the use of cultivated cucurbits have been found from as early as 685 BC. American Indians cultivated squash in pre-Columbian times, and chayote was a common vegetable among the Aztecs prior to the Spanish conquest. Depending upon the species, virtually all parts of the plant can be used for food, including leaves, shoots, roots, flowers, seeds, and immature and mature fruits. Starch can be extracted from roots, and the seeds are a rich source of oils and proteins. In addition, some cucurbits have been used for ornamental purposes [e.g., gourds], for utensils [e.g., bowls, ladles, sponges, boxes, birdhouses, musical instruments], and for fuel and pharmacological uses in certain areas of the world. 2
GENUS Citrullus is a genus of 3 species of annual and perennial herbs with trailing or climbing stems, pinnately lobed leaves, and branched tendrils. The unisexual, bell-shaped, yellow flowers are borne singly in the axis of the leaves. The genus is native to tropical Asia and Africa. Citrullus colocynthis stays green even in times of severe drought and is the source for the cathartic medicine colocynth, which is made from the dried pulp of the fruit. It has been known since Biblical times and cultivated in the Mediterranean region, esp. in Cyprus, and in India for many centuries. The watermelon [Citrullus lanatus] belongs to the same genus; it is widely cultivated throughout tropical and subtropical regions for its large fruit with its hard rind and red fleshy pulp.
FEATURES Originally from tropical Asia and Africa, Citrullus colocynthis is now widely distributed in the Saharo-Arabian phytogeographic region and the Mediterranean region. A highly xerophytic plant, it thrives where mean annual temperature is from 23-27o C and annual rainfall ranges from 25-37 cm. It thrives on sandy loam, subdesert soils, and along sandy sea coasts. The stems are angular and rough; the leaves are rough, 5-10 cm in length, deeply 3-7 lobed. Each plant produces 15-30 round fruits, about 7-10 cm in diameter, green with undulate yellow stripes, becoming yellow all over when dry. The pulp is light in weight, spongy, easily broken, light yellowish-orange to pale yellow, and intensely bitter. Seeds are small [up to 6 mm in length], smooth and brownish when ripe. The plant occurs in many places in Israel, from the north to the hot desert, in sandy soils and wadis. It flowers between May and August. The plant is easily cultivated from seed, grows rapidly, and requires no attention once fields have been sown. Productivity is enhanced during dry, sunny periods and reduced during periods of excessive rainfall and high humidity. The plant is suitable for production in 'marginal growing areas'.
NAME The name Citrullus derives from Citrus, from the appearance of the fruit.
CONSTITUENTS Active drug contains an ether-chloroform soluble resin, a phytosterol glycoside [citrullol], other glycosides [elaterin, elatericin B and dihydro-elatericin B], pectins and albuminoids. Bitter substance is colocynthin and colocynthetin. Roots contain a-elaterin, hentriacontane, and saponins. Per 100 g, the seed is reported to contain 556 calories, 6.7 g water, 23.6 g protein, 47.2 g fat, 19.5 g total carbohydrates, 1.5 g fibre, 3.0 g ash, 46 mg calcium, and 580 mg potassium. The oil contains oleic, linoleic, myristic, palmitic, and stearic acids. Seeds contain phytosterolin [ipurand], 2 phytosterols, 2 hydrocarbons, a saponin, an alkaloid, a polysaccharide or glycoside, and tannin. 3
USES The dried pulp of the fruit is the source of colocynth, a drastic purgative. The juice is used to produce tissue irritation in an arrow poison. The dried fruit pulp forms a powder that is so inflammable that the Arabs collect it to use as kindling. The fruit is used to repel moths from wool. In India, the vine is planted as a sand binder. The seed oil is used to blacken grey hair. Colocynth used as a denaturant in alcoholic hair tonics and brilliantines caused persistent eczema localised to the palm and finger web spaces of the left hand in barbers. The dust from the dried fruit pulp is very irritating to the eye and nose. "During biblical times, fruits were gathered and considered as a deadly poison [II Kings 4:39-40]. The fruits are widely used medicinally, especially for stomach pains. The pulp, because of its content of glycosides, such as colocynthin, is a drastic hydragogue, cathartic, and laxative. The fruits were exported as a laxative from the Gaza Strip to Europe in the early 20th century. The seeds are edible and when ground provide a rude bread for the desert Bedouins. The seeds have a high oil content [17-19%]; in ancient times it was among the oils permitted to be used for candle light. ... The fatty acid composition of the seed oil of C. colocynthis is very similar to that of safflower oil. The predominant fatty acid of the seed oil is linoleic acid, ranging from 67% to 73% of total fatty acids."4
FOOD The dried pulp contains the bitter or poisonous principles. Indigenous methods have been developed to remove these principles. In India [Rajasthan] the seeds are gathered, washed with salt water many times to remove the bitter principles [mostly contained in the attached pulp], or are buried with common salt in small dugouts in the sand, kept covered there for a few weeks, washed, dried, ground into flour and made into sogra, a rather hard-baked bread. The seeds may also be mixed with bajra flour for bread and are reported to provide better taste and lustre to chappatis. In western parts of Rajasthan seeds are eaten raw, fried and roasted. 5
FOLK MEDICINE Considered cathartic, ecbolic, emmenagogue, febrifuge, hydragogue, purgative, and vermifugal, the colocynth is used for amenorrhoea, ascites, bilious disorders, cancer, fever, jaundice, leukaemia, rheumatism, snakebite, tumours [esp. of the abdomen], and urogenital disorders. According to Hartwell the plant figures in remedies for cancer, carcinoma, endothelioma, leukaemia, corns, tumours of the liver and spleen, even the eye. It is interesting to note that this folk cancer 'remedy' contains three antitumour ingredients: cucurbitacin B [active against PS-134 and KB tumour systems], cucurbitacin E [active against LL and KB systems] and the D-glycoside of beta-sitosterol [active against CA, LL and WA tumour systems]. The pulp or leaves is a folk remedy for cancerous tumours. A decoction of the whole plant, made in juice of fennel, is said to help indurations of the liver. Roots may also be used as purgative against ascites, for jaundice, urinary diseases, rheumatism, and for snake-poison. 6
SYMBOLISM Native to both Old and New Worlds, the gourd gave its name to the Cucurbitaceae family. Pilgrims and other travellers commonly used gourds as water canteens. A major destination for pilgrimage in medieval times was Spain, where the reputed relics of St. James the Greater lay at Santiago de Compostella. He was shown in Christian art as a pilgrim, often carrying a gourd water bottle. Because of this connection with travel, gourds were also emblematic of Gabriel, messenger of God, and Raphael, patron of travellers. To Native American tribes of North Dakota, wild swans represented gourds. In popular belief gourds are linked with travel, pilgrimage, first step, first driver's licence, and also appropriate for welcome. 7
PROVINGS •• [1] Hahnemann - 7 provers; method: unknown.
•• [2] Austrian proving - 17 provers [15 males, 2 females], 1842-43; method: repeated doses of tincture; also provings with 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th dils.
•• [3] Lembke - self-experimentation; method: repeated doses of tincture.
[1] Heywood, Flowering Plants of the World. [2] T.J. Ng, New opportunities in the Cucurbitaceae; in: Janick and Simon [eds.], New Crops, New York 1993. [3] Duke, Citrullus colocynthis; Handbook of Energy Crops, 1983. [4] Yaniv et al., Colocynth: Potential Arid Land Oilseed from an Ancient Cucurbit. [5] Freedman, Famine Foods. [6] Duke, ibid. [7] Reed, Fruits and Nuts in Symbolism and Celebration.
Affinity
NERVES [TRIFACIAL; ABDOMINAL; spinal; SCIATIC]. DIGESTIVE TRACT. INTESTINES. Ovaries. Kidneys. * RIGHT SIDE. Left side.
Modalities
Worse: EMOTIONS. VEXATION. Chagrin. Anger. Lying on painless side. Night, in bed. Drafts. Taking cold. Mortification caused by offence. Cheese [colic]. Evening. After eating. In repose. Motion.
Better: BENDING DOUBLE; HARD PRESSURE. Coffee. Heat. Rest. Gentle motion. After stool or flatus. Lying upon abdomen. Touch.
Main symptoms
M ANGER.
• "The bristly stem and prickly leaves, not to mention the separation of the sexes on different flowers, suggest an irascible, irritable, unsociable nature. ... The Colocynthis patient presents a mixed picture of anger and anguish. The face tends to be dark and distorted with pain. The sufferer is quite unable to keep still. He may be speechless with rage or, possibly, screaming with agony. Extreme irritability is the predominant feature. A tendency to flare up over the least thing, to be easily upset by trifles. Friends irritate; he wants to be left alone; is disinclined to talk. The child is inclined to be naughty and to take offence very readily." [Gibson]
• "Extreme peevishness; everything is amiss; he is extremely impatient; every word he has to answer, vexes him, even things the most harmless." [Hahnemann]
• "Colocynthis misses the refined dignity that induces Staphisagria to suppress its anger. It is much more disposed to irritability and anger, with violent outbursts like Chamomilla. And these outbursts cause more suffering. The remedy has a sympathetic trait like Causticum."1
M Emotions come out with the pain.
ANGER with the PAIN or pain from anger; screams with the pain.
And Distorted face.
• "'Getting mad' induces the pain, and the severity of the pains make him madder still so much so that he gets angry with sympathizers and desires to be left alone." [Gibson]
• "Irritable; throws things from his hands." [Allen]
M Pent-up emotions, esp. anger [anger with silent grief].
Leading to PHYSICAL complaints, esp. CRAMPS.
M Restlessness with the pain.
• "Attempt to disguise the restlessness, which is a stiff kind of restlessness, not the thrashing about type. Don't want others to know that they are suffering too much." [Morrison]
• "Does not like to talk, to answer, or to see friends, or anybody." [Lippe]
G Pre-eminently an acute remedy.
G Sudden, violent CRAMPING pains; making him TWIST, turn or cry out in pain.
• "The twisting and twining habits of growth are exemplified in the sufferer from poisoning with the pulp of the berry, who will be found writhing in agony and doubled up with excruciating colic." [Gibson]
G Pains and nausea or diuresis.
G Cutting, pinching, clamping, gnawing, grasping, clutching or boring pains [NEURALGIC, in WAVES, paroxysmal], followed by NUMBNESS.
G < 4 - 5 P.M. G > BENDING DOUBLE, HARD PRESSURE; heat.
• "Limbs drawn up like a hedgehog." [Kent]
G > LYING on ABDOMEN; lying on painful side.
P Prosopalgia [right-sided] and painful twitchings.
> Pressure and heat.
[In more chronic stage < pressure.] P Persistent bitter taste in the mouth. P Acute digestive affections after eating unripe or decayed fruit; or drinking bad water; e.g. drinking unboiled water in a [sub]tropical country. • "The vomiting of Colocynthis is different from that of most other remedies. Nausea does not appear at first but when the pain becomes sufficiently intense nausea and vomiting begin, the contents of the stomach are ejected, and the patient continues to retch until the severity of the suffering decreases. Colic in infants is relieved by lying on the stomach, but as soon as the position is changed they begin to scream again." [Kent] P Abdominal colics from anger, cheese, indigestion. Particularly umbilical region. Alternating with vertigo. And Cramps in calves, diarrhoea. • "Colic so distressing that they seek relief by pressing corners of tables or heads of bed-posts against the abdomen." [Hering] • "Continual tensive pain in bowels which feel as if they had been gathered into a ball, had fallen down, and now lay like a pressive weight in hypogastrium, with also sense as if anterior wall of abdomen were wanting, and bowels would fall out forwards." [Hughes] • "I am not yet free from effects of dose taken on 14th. I am constantly annoyed by a feeling as of a stoppage, a compression, a coil in the umbilical region, sometimes more, sometimes less. At times, esp. towards morning, it increases to a piercing or cutting pain. I generally wake in morning with colic and tenesmus, and have every day several thin pappy stools." [Hughes] P Diarrhoea. And Pain in hypogastrium or round navel, as if intestines were squeezed between stones. P Dysmenorrhoea, violent menstrual cramps, has to bend double. With the above-mentioned modalities and concomitants. P Sciatica [right-sided], shooting or band-like [followed by numbness]. < Least motion, rotation and at night. > Lying on painful side.
• "Dr. J.V. Müller took at 9 a.m. 20 drops of 4th dilution. No effect till 5 p.m. , thereafter on walking briskly some painful obtuse stitches, suddenly coming and as suddenly ceasing, in r. hip, that caused him to stop his walk for a short time. This recurred so often that he had to give up his walk and go home. Amelioration when sitting, but instead of the above pain he felt a heavy weight in the lumbo-dorsal region, which was only relieved somewhat by lying on l. side. The painful parts felt warm and sensitive to touch. On rising and walking the stitches above mentioned recurred, but the dull weight went off. At night in the warm bed the pain declined, but it woke him about 4 a.m. It was now throbbing, almost boring in character. The point of origin of the pain was in the sacral region at the seat of the plexus ischiadicus, it passed thence through the incisura ischiadica major towards the hip-joint, whence the pain radiated to the posterior aspect of the thigh and towards the knee-joint and popliteal fossa. In its origin and course it corresponds to the sciatic nerve. But it also spread to the branches of this nerve to the glutaeus superior and inferior. The feeling was as if the hip-joint were fastened by clamps to the pelvis." [Hughes]
[1] Payrhuber, The unbearable pain of life: Two cases of Citrullus colocynthis; HL 2/97.
Rubrics
Mind
Ailments from anger, with indignation [3]. Anger, when obliged to answer [1; Nux-v.]; suppression of menses from anger [3; Cham.; Staph.]; anger about pains [2; Cham.]. Dulness, after beer [1/1]. Fear, to lose his religious faith [1]. Horrible things affect her profoundly, misfortune of others [1/1]. Irritability, taciturn [1]. Restlessness, from anger [3]. Lack of reverence for those around him [1].
Head
Pain, from beer [1], > coffee [1], while lying on back [1], during urination [1; Tab.]; vertex, from stooping [1]. Greasy perspiration on forehead [1].
Eye
Closing, spasmodic closure of eyes from pain in abdomen [1/1]. Sensation as if eyes were falling out on stooping [1; Brom.]. Heaviness of lids, during pressing headache in temples [1*].
Vision
Circle with rays, before r. eye [1*]. Flickering, during headache [2].
Nose
Sensation as if nose and [l.] eye were swelling [1*].
Stomach
Nausea, > drinking water [1*]. Pain, after anger [3], > coffee [1], after potatoes [2]; cramping, > bending forward [3], > eructations [1].
Abdomen
Pain as if bowels have been gathered into a ball [1*]. Bubbling, noises as from breaking of large bubbles in various parts of abdomen [1*]. Sensation like an electric shock passing through [1/1]. Pain, after anger [2], > coffee [3/1], after potatoes [2], > after tobacco [1/1]; cramping, after beer [1*], cramping, > descending stairs [1*], > standing still [1*], < walking [1*]. Rectum Pain, tenesmus, alternating with tenesmus of bladder [1*]. Male Retraction, penis, prepuce, at night [1*]. Female Pain, ovaries, extending to stomach [1/1]. Respiration Difficult, from sensation of ball as large as fist rising up in pharynx [1*]; during menses [2]. Slow, at night [1; Lach.]. Limbs Constriction, middle of left calf, as from a narrow ribbon [1*]. Feeling of numbness, swelling and heat in l. foot, gradually invading whole leg [1*]. Pain, in limbs increases when cough declines [1*]; lower limbs, sciatica, > flexing leg [1], < continued motion [1], < pressure [2], > pressure [1]. Perspiration, hands, odour of urine [1/1].
* Repertory additions [Hughes].
Food
Aversion: [2]: Food. [1]: Water.
Desire: [2]: Beer; bread; cold food, without thirst.
Worse: [3]: Fruit. [2]: Beans and peas; oysters; potatoes; shellfish. [1]: Beer; cheese, old; cold drinks; cold food; farinaceous; frozen food; rhubarb; wine.
Better: [2]: Coffee. [1]: Warm milk; warm drinks.

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