# Foetid pills

**Pillole fetide**

**Known today as.** Pilulae foetidae, named for their stench, made with foul-smelling gum resins such as sagapenum and ammoniacum, together with aloes, colocynth, scammony, and other drastic purgatives.

Kind: Compound  
Poisoning: The drastic resins (https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/poisons/drastic-resin)  
Toxic: yes

> **Caution.** 

## What did Canale use it for?

Among the commended purges (ch. 4).

## What does modern science say?

Drastic, as their ingredients imply.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **ammoniacum, sagapenum, myrrh**: the stinking gums
- **cucurbitacins**: from the colocynth
- **scammonin**: 
- **aloin**: 
- **castoreum**: in some recipes

**Mechanism.** Colocynth, scammony, and aloes with the stinking gums: Culpeper says the pills purge gross and raw phlegm and serve for gouts of all sorts, pains of the back and joints, and leprosies, and he disliked the recipe for its violence.

**Dose.** A drastic purge; colocynth pulp extract killed rabbits at 200 mg per kilogram a day.

**Standing.** Obsolete.

## Sources

- Li, Q. Y., et al. (2021). *Citrullus colocynthis* (L.) Schrad (bitter apple fruit): promising traditional uses, pharmacological effects, aspects, and potential applications. *Frontiers in Pharmacology* 12: 791049.
- *The British Pharmaceutical Codex* (1911). London: Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. Monographs as transcribed at Henriette’s Herbal Homepage, henriettes-herb.com.
- Culpeper, N. (1653). *Pharmacopoeia Londinensis*, “Pilulae Foetidae.”

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*Foetid pills.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-03. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/foetid-pills

Historical description, not medical advice.