ELATERIUM  , a

drug consisting of a sediment deposited by the juice of the fruit of Ecballium Elaterium, the squirting cucumber, a native of the Mediterranean region . The plant, which is a member of the natural order Cucurbitaceae, resembles the vegetable marrow in its growth . The fruit resembles a small cucumber, and when ripe is highly turgid, and separates almost at a touch from the fruit stalk . The end of the stalk forms a stopper, on the removal of which the fluid contents of the fruit, together with the seeds, are squirted through the aperture by the sudden contraction of the wall of the fruit . To prepare the drug the fruit is sliced lengthwise and slightly pressed; the greenish and slightly turbid juice thus obtained is strained and set aside; and the deposit of elaterium formed after a few hours is collected on a linen filter, rapidly drained, and dried on porous tiles at a gentle heat . Elaterium is met with in commerce in light, thin, friable, flat or slightly incurved opaque cakes, of a greyish-green colour, bitter taste and tea-like smell . The drug is soluble in alcohol, but insoluble in water and ether . The official dose is io-2 grain, and the British pharmacopeia directs that the drug is to contain from 20 to 25% of the active principle elaterinum or elaterin . A resin in the natural product aids its action . Elaterin is extracted from elaterium by chloroform and then precipitated by ether . It has the formula C2oH28Os . It forms colourless scales which have a bitter taste, but it is highly inadvisable to taste either this substance or elaterium .

Its dose is iv- I s grain, and the British pharmacopeia contains a useful preparation, the Pulvis Elaterini Compositus, which contains one

part of the active principle in forty . The action of this drug resembles that of the saline aperients, but is much more powerful . It is the most active hydragogue purgative known, causing also much depression and violent griping . When injected subcutaneously it is inert, as its action is entirely dependent upon its admixture with the bile . The drug is undoubtedly valuable in cases of dropsy and Bright's disease, and also in cases of cerebral haemorrhage, threatened or present . It must not be used except in urgent cases, and must invariably be employed with the utmost care, especially if the state of the heart be unsatisfactory .