# Hamech, confection of

**Confettione Hamech**

**Known today as.** A purgative confection containing myrobalans, senna, polypody, and colocynth, among many other purgatives.

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

## What did Canale use it for?

In the purge for melancholic patients (ch. 4; see note XXXIII).

## What does modern science say?

Culpeper calls it chiefly a purge for melancholy and salt phlegm, and warns that it “purgeth very violently, and is not safe given alone.”

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **cucurbitacins**: colocynth
- **agaric acid (agaricin)**: agaric
- **senna, rhubarb, myrobalans**: the milder purges; myrobalans, Culpeper says, purge phlegm “very gently”
- **epithymum, fumitory, polypody, wormwood**: in the recipe
- **pulp of prunes, raisins of the sun**: 

**Mechanism.** A purge for melancholy: colocynth, agaric, and diacrydium with myrobalans, senna, rhubarb, polypody, and epithymum, boiled in whey and thickened with prunes, raisins, sugar, and honey. Culpeper: it “purgeth very violently.”

**Dose.** A violent purge; Culpeper would not have the unskilled take it by mouth, and gives half an ounce in clysters.

**Standing.** Obsolete.

## Sources

- *The British Pharmaceutical Codex* (1911). London: Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. Monographs as transcribed at Henriette’s Herbal Homepage, henriettes-herb.com.
- 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.
- Culpeper, N. (1653). *Pharmacopoeia Londinensis*, “Confectio Hamech.”

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

Historical description, not medical advice.