Colocynth
Bitter apple; coloquintida
- Known today as
- The dried pulp of Citrullus colocynthis.
- Kind
- Plant, in 1 older authority
- Constituents
- cucurbitacin E, colocynthin
- Poisoning
- Gastrointestinal irritants
- Earliest authority here
- 2 Kings
- In other databases
- Plants of the World Online search · GBIF search · Wikidata search
Revised October 1, 2026: Lore added from texts read in full. Version 1, first published September 25, 2026.
Caution. Poisonous; a violent purge.
Colocynth: what was it used for?
A drastic purge, in pills and hiera.
Colocynth: what does modern science say?
Violently cathartic and irritant; now obsolete.
Colocynth: is it poisonous?
Yes, in some form or dose. Poisonous; a violent purge. Its poisoning is gastrointestinal irritants: Thirty minutes to three hours: the short latency is reassuring, since the deadly syndromes come later. Historical description, not medical advice; in a poisoning, call a poison centre.
Pharmacognosy & Toxicology
- Constituents
- Mechanism
- The cucurbitacins are among the bitterest substances known and inflame the gut.
- Toxic dose
- A gram or two of the pulp has killed by bloody purging.
- Syndrome
- Gastrointestinal irritants
- Standing
- No medicinal use.
- Nelson, L. S., et al. (2007). Handbook of Poisonous and Injurious Plants. Verified against its record · doi:10.1007/978-1-4939-8926-3
Constituent names open the compound’s record at PubChem, and “ChEMBL” beside a name opens its record at ChEMBL, the European Bioinformatics Institute’s database of bioactive molecules. Where a mechanism line was checked against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37, read 1 October 2026), the check is shown with the measured value and its source paper, or says plainly that nothing has been measured. Doses are as the references give them, for description only; this is not medical advice. Each source carries the result of its check against Crossref, PubMed, or the authority’s page: see Verification.
Colocynth: what lore surrounds it?
Thiselton-Dyer records the proverb for a bad exchange, “You give me coloquintida (colocynth) for Herb-John.”
Used in These Compounds
Colocynth is an ingredient of 5 compound medicines in the database. For Club members. Create a free account or sign in.
Colocynth: what did the older authorities say?
- 2 Kings
- The prophets’ stew of wild gourds, usually taken to be colocynth, made them cry “there is death in the pot,” until Elisha cast meal into it.
Sources
- 2 Kings 4:38–41. Book, seen in reviews
- Dioscorides, De materia medica. Read in part · the text read
- Thiselton-Dyer, T. F. (1889). The Folk-lore of Plants. Project Gutenberg #10118. Read in part · the text read
Verification
- Checked
- October 1, 2026
- Passes
- Every sentence read against its sources, in the pass over the remaining 343 entries
- The Standing line checked against the authority it names (EMA, WHO, FDA, CITES, Commission E)
- Every dated or regulatory claim checked by category across the database
- Each quotation from the older authorities checked word for word against the text, read in full
- Sources
- 4 cited: 2 read in part, 1 verified against its record, 1 book, seen in reviews.
- Corrections
- None were needed.
What was checked, how, and what was found is set out on the Verification page. A checked source is one whose record was found; it does not make the entry medical advice.
Cite This Entry
Version 1 · first published September 25, 2026 · last revised October 1, 2026
- Chicago
“Colocynth.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified October 1, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/colocynth.
- MLA
“Colocynth.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 1 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/colocynth. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Colocynth. (2026, October 1). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 8, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/colocynth
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See Also
Poisoned alike: gastrointestinal irritants
Common earthball · Castor-oil plant, seeds of · Cyclamen, greater · Caper spurge · Honey fungus · Bryony · Jack-o’-lantern · Yellow stainer · the syndrome, with all of them →
Drawing on the same sources: Dioscorides, Thiselton-Dyer, Nelson
Comfrey · Chaste tree · Crow’s gall · Cumin · Cinquefoil · Hemlock · the bibliography →
Nearby in the alphabet
Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara) · Coffee (The roasted seeds of Coffea arabica) · Cochineal (a parasite of the prickly-pear cactus of Mexico and South America) · Cochia pills · Common ink cap (A grey mushroom that dissolves into black ink as it ages) · Clove
Historical description, not medical advice.