ECBALLIUM

n.

1 definition — Webster’s Dictionary (1828)


n.

A genus of cucurbitaceous plants consisting of the single species Ecballium agreste (or Elaterium), the squirting cucumber. Its fruit, when ripe, bursts and violently ejects its seeds, together with a mucilaginous juice, from which elaterium, a powerful cathartic medicine, is prepared.


← ECAUDATE E — all words ECBASIS →