548. Pepo.—Pumpkin Seed

The ripe seed of Cucur'bita pe'po Linné.

BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS.—Stem hispid, procumbent; tendrils branched. Leaves very large, cordate, palmately 5-lobed. Fruit yellow, very large (sometimes two feet in diameter), roundish or oblong, smooth, and furrowed.

HABITAT.—Tropical Asia and America.

DESCRIPTION OF DRUG.—Flat, broadly ovate seeds, about 20 mm. (4/5 in.) long, and 2 mm. (1/12 in.) thick, with a flat ridge and shallow groove around the edge; testa dull white, inclosing two flat, white, oily cotyledons and a short radicle; inodorous; taste bland and oily.

Powder.—Microscopical elements of: See Part iv, Chap. I, B.

CONSTITUENTS.—From 30 to 40 per cent. of a thick, red fixed oil, an acrid resin, considered to be the taeniafuge principle, starch, sugar, fatty acids, and the proteids, myosin and vitellin, the myosin precipitating from an infusion saturated with NaCl, and the addition of CO₂ separating out the vitellin, apparently identical with that of egg yolk.

ACTION AND USES.—Taeniafuge. Dose: 1 to 2 oz. (30 to 60 Gm.), in emulsion.

A Manual of Organic Materia Medica and Pharmacognosy, 1917, was written by Lucius E. Sayre, B.S. Ph. M.