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

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

It forms colourless scales which have a bitter taste, but it is highly inadvisable to taste either this substance or elaterium.

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

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 )