elaterium

British  

/ ˌɛləˈtɪərɪəm /

noun

1. a greenish sediment prepared from the juice of the squirting cucumber, used as a purgative

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Etymology

Origin of elaterium

C16: from Latin, from Greek elatērion squirting cucumber, from elatērios purgative, from elaunein to drive

Example Sentences

Violent cathartics, emetic tartar, squill, buckthorn, rhamnus catharticus, scammonium, convolvulus scammonia, gamboge, elaterium, colocynth, cucumis colocynthis, veratrum.

From Zoonomia, Vol. II Or, the Laws of Organic Life by Darwin, Erasmus

The juice of the unripe fruit, when expressed and allowed to stand, deposits elaterium as a green sediment with an acrid taste, a faint odour, and powerful cathartic properties.

From The New Gresham Encyclopedia Volume 4, Part 2: Ebert to Estremadura by Various

The chief vegetable purgatives are aloes, colocynth, gamboge, jalap, scammony, seeds of castor-oil plant, croton-oil, elaterium, the hellebores, and colchicum.

From Aids to Forensic Medicine and Toxicology by Robertson, W. G. Aitchison (William George Aitchison )

Elaterin is extracted from elaterium by chloroform and then precipitated by ether.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 2 "Ehud" to "Electroscope" by Various

Now may he invoke the virtues of the hellebores, the white and the black, now may he use elaterium.

From History of the Intellectual Development of Europe, Volume I (of 2) Revised Edition by Draper, John William