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Pilulae Cochiae Minores
Lesser Pills of Cochia
Lesser Pills of Cochia
Tradition:
Western
Source / Author:
Galen
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Herb Name
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Preparation:
Beat them, then form a Pill mass with equal parts of Syrups of Wormwood and Purging Thorn, and make Pills the size of Pepper corns. Colocynth and Scammony must be used in their prepared forms (such as Troches of Alhandal, and Scammony prepared with Quince juice).
Function:
Purges Bile and Phlegm from the Head, Stomach, Liver and Bowels
Use:
1. Headache, including after Trauma
2. Deafness, Tinnitus
3. Failing Eyesight, Cataract
4. Jaundice
5. Arthritis and Rheumatism
6. People prone to Lice, Worms or Parasites should use them occasionally.
7. Premature Greying of hair
Dose:
1–2 scruples, or 8–11 pepper-corn sized pills. Often taken once per week in the long term treatment of chronic diseases.
Cautions:
None noted
Modifications:
1. Poor or failing Eyesight, take Electuary of Pope Innocent Against Blindness after purging with Pills of Cochia.
2. Edema or Moist Cough or Phlegm Asthma, take Oxymel of Squill for several days before purging with Pills of Cochia.
3. Contortion of the Mouth following Apoplexy, Pil. Cochia, Pil. de Hermodact, 1 scruple ea., Diagrydium 2 grains; mix with Rue juice and form 7 pills. (Wirtzung)
4. Alopecia from Phlegm, add Bdellium and Mastic.
5. A related contemporary Unani formula contains Aloe, Scammony, Colocynth and Wormwood, of each 10 grams; Mastic, Bdellium and Tragacanth, 5 grams ea. This is better corrected, and is used for Hemiplegia, Bells Palsy and Alopecia. Dose: 125– 250mg.
6. There was Cochia with Hellebore, used for Melancholy
7. Cochia with Mercury was used for virulent Gonorrhea and Syphilis.
Similar Formulas:
Golden Pills are very similar, but better corrected and far better to be used than Pills of Cochia.
Wootton (Chronicles of Pharmacy, 1910) tells how these pills got their name. Galen originally said these pills were to be formed into katapotia (‘things to be swallowed’) made the size of a pea. Trallien talks of the same pill, but called them kokkion, for coccus, or lentil berry, in reference to the size of the pills. Some say the name Cochia was popularised by the Arab physician Rhasis.
These Lesser Pills remained in common use well after the Greater Pills of Cochia, and in the London Pharmacopoeia of 1746, their name was changed to Pilulae ex Colocynthide cum Aloe, the Pills of Colocynth with Aloe.
These Lesser Pills remained in common use well after the Greater Pills of Cochia, and in the London Pharmacopoeia of 1746, their name was changed to Pilulae ex Colocynthide cum Aloe, the Pills of Colocynth with Aloe.
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