GAMBOGE, a concrete vegetable juice or gum-resin obtained by making incisions in the bark of the Garcinia cambogia, a forest tree of the same genus as that which affords the mangosteen, the most exquisite fruit of the east. It is imported sometimes in orbicular masses, but generally in cylindrical rolls; is of a bright yellow colour, opaque, brittle, has a vitreous fracture, no smell, and a slightly acrid taste. It forms a beautiful yellow pigment, which is much employed by painters in watercolour; is used to stain wood in imitation of box; and the tincture enters into the composition of the gold-coloured varnish for lacquering brass. It also gives a beautiful and durable stain to marble. Medicinally it is a drastic purgative.