Elaterium

Dropsy with a tense, fluid-distended abdomen and scanty urine, where a violent hydragogue purge was historically used as a last resort to clear fluid via the bowel

Cerebral or pulmonary effusion in acute febrile illness, where eclectic physicians used minute, carefully titrated doses to draw fluid away from vital organs

Overview. Ecballium elaterium, the squirting cucumber, is a low, trailing Mediterranean and Middle Eastern plant of the cucumber family, notable for its ripe fruit which explosively ejects its seeds and juice when disturbed. The dried sediment of the fruit's juice, called elaterium, was one of the most powerful hydragogue cathartics of nineteenth century eclectic and regular medicine, reserved for severe dropsical states. Its use has almost entirely disappeared from modern practice because of its extreme potency and narrow margin of safety.

Clinical Notes. Eclectic physicians valued elaterium as a drastic remedy for dropsy that had not responded to gentler diuretics, particularly when ascites or anasarca threatened vital function and the case seemed otherwise hopeless.

Action and Therapy. Elaterium is the most powerful and the best of the hydragogue cathartics. As such it is indicated only in individuals strong enough to stand depletion, and is always contraindicated in the weak and feeble.

Action and Therapy. Trailing arbutus is a useful diuretic when the urine is loaded with deposits of red, sandy material, mucus or muco-pus. It renders the urine less irritating, and is valuable to relieve irritation of the mucous membranes, vesical tenesmus, dysuria, and strangury.