calumbin

English

Alternative forms

colombine

Etymology

calumba +‎ -in

Noun

calumbin (uncountable)

1. (organic chemistry) A bitter white crystalline substance extracted from the calumba root (Jateorhiza palmata).
   • 1843, Samuel Thomson, “On the Vegetable Resources of the Edinburgh Pharmacopœia”, in The Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, volume 60, page 167:

     Cissampelina, the intensely sweetish-bitter principle found in this body, is very like calumbin in some physical properties; yet we have been wont to associate other therapeutic ideas with pareira, than with calumba.

   • 1844, Richard Dennis Hoblyn, A Dictionary of Terms Used in Medicine and the Collateral Sciences‎^[1]:

     CALUMBÆ RADIX (Kalumbo, Portuguese). The root of the Cocculus palmatus, one of our most useful stomachics and tonics. It contains a bitter principle, called calumbin.

   • 2014, Maurice M. Iwu, Handbook of African Medicinal Plants, Second Edition‎^[2], page 242:

     It also contains bitter terpene-dilactones, such as calumbin and dihydronaphthalene (chasmanthin and palmanin).