# Gamboge (Garcinia hanburyi)

**Gummi guttae*; from Cambodia*

**Known today as.** A gum-resin from *Garcinia hanburyi* of Cambodia and Thailand, yellow as egg yolk.

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

> **Caution.** A violent and dangerous purge.

## What was it used for?

A drastic purge for dropsy and worms; and the brilliant yellow of watercolour.

## What does modern science say?

A dangerous purgative, long abandoned in medicine.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **gambogic acid**: a caged xanthone, 30–40 per cent of the resin
- **morellic acid**: 
- **gambogenic acid**: 

**Mechanism.** The resin is one of the most violent purgatives of the old pharmacy, irritating the whole gut and causing colic, vomiting, and watery stools within hours; gambogic acid, isolated from it, induces apoptosis in cancer cells through several routes and has had phase II trials in China.

**Dose.** Half a gram purges; 4 g has killed; the Morison’s pills that carried it caused deaths and a famous trial in 1836.

**Standing.** Withdrawn as a medicine; a watercolour pigment; gambogic acid is an investigational anticancer agent.

## What lore surrounds it?

It was said to be in the purging “vegetable pills” sold by James Morison, the “Hygeist,” in 1820s London.

## Sources

- Pomet, P. (1694). *Histoire générale des drogues* (English, *A Compleat History of Druggs*, 1712).
- Grieve, M. (1931). *A Modern Herbal*, “Gamboge.”
- Chi, Y., et al. (2013). “An open-labeled, randomized, multicenter phase IIa study of gambogic acid injection for advanced malignant tumors.” *Chinese Medical Journal* 126.
- Helfand, W. H. (1974). “James Morison and his pills.” *Transactions of the British Society for the History of Pharmacy* 1.

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*Gamboge.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-09-30. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/gamboge

Historical description, not medical advice.