Origin. - The ripe seed of Cucurbita pepo L., the common pumpkin, indigenous in tropical Asia and America, and cultivated throughout the temperate zones.

Description and Properties. - About 3/4 inch (2 Cm.) long, broadly-ovate, flat, white or whitish, nearly smooth, with a shallow groove parallel to the edge; containing a short, conical radicle and two flat cotyledons; inodorous; taste bland and oily. It contains an acrid resin, supposed to be the active principle, and from 30 to 35 per cent. of a thick red fixed oil.

Dose. - 1-3 ounces (32.0-94.0 Gm.) [1 ounce (30 Gm.), U. S. P.].

Physiological Action and Therapeutics. - Pumpkin seed ranks next to aspidium in the minds of some therapeutists as a remedy for the destruction of tapeworm, and has the advantage of being free from any disagreeable taste or unpleasant action. For administration the fresh pumpkin seeds should be beaten into a paste with powdered sugar and diluted with milk or water to about 1 pint (500 Cc). Previous to its administration the patient should fast for twenty-four hours, when the bowels should be flushed out with a large saline purgative. A portion of the emulsion of pumpkin seed is then to be taken, preferably in the morning, and the balance taken in two doses at intervals of about two hours, the patient meanwhile remaining in bed to prevent, as far as possible, disturb' ance of the stomach.