''Croton tiglium'', known as purging croton, is a

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...

species in the family

Euphorbiaceae Euphorbiaceae, the spurge family, is a large family of flowering plants. In English, they are also commonly called euphorbias, which is also the name of a genus in the family. Most spurges, such as ''Euphorbia paralias'', are herbs, but some, e ...

. ''C. tiglium'' is also called jamaal gota in

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

Etymology

The

specific Specific may refer to: * Specificity (disambiguation) * Specific, a cure or therapy for a specific illness Law * Specific deterrence, focussed on an individual * Specific finding, intermediate verdict used by a jury in determining the fina ...

name ''tiglium'' is of obscure origin. It may come from the traditional name given by pharmacists to the seeds of the croton plant. According to one suggestion, it may be derived from the Greek ''tiglos'', diarrhea. According to another, it may refer to one of the

Maluku islands The Maluku Islands (; Indonesian: ''Kepulauan Maluku'') or the Moluccas () are an archipelago in the east of Indonesia. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located eas ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

, ostensibly the home habitat of the species.

Traditional uses

''Croton tiglium'' is one of the

50 fundamental herbs Chinese herbology () is the theory of traditional Chinese herbal therapy, which accounts for the majority of treatments in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). A ''Nature'' editorial described TCM as "fraught with pseudoscience", and said that t ...

used in

traditional Chinese medicine Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. It has been described as "fraught with pseudoscience", with the majority of its treatments having no logical mechanism of action ...

, where it has the name'' bā dòu ''(). ''C. tiglium'' is known as ''japaala''/ජාපාල or ''jayapala'' in Sinhala and used in Sinhala traditional medical system of

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

and in Sanskrit. The seeds are called ''jamālgoṭa'' in Hindi, Marathi, and Urdu, and are well known for their toxicity (severe

purgative Laxatives, purgatives, or aperients are substances that loosen stools and increase bowel movements. They are used to treat and prevent constipation. Laxatives vary as to how they work and the side effects they may have. Certain stimulant, lubri ...

effect). They are used to treat constipation after the seeds have undergone a traditional Ayurvedic detoxification process with cow's milk (''godugdha''). This is referred to as ''Śodhana'', a general term for detoxification. The plant is poisonous, with the bark used as an

arrow poison Arrow poisons are used to poison arrow heads or darts for the purposes of hunting and warfare. They have been used by indigenous peoples worldwide and are still in use in areas of South America, Africa and Asia. Notable examples are the poisons se ...

and the seeds used to poison fish.''Croton tiglium'' Purdue University
/ref>

Chemical constituents

Major known chemical constituents are crotonoleic acid, glyceryl crotonate,

crotonic acid Crotonic acid ((2''E'')-but-2-enoic acid) is a short-chain unsaturated carboxylic acid, described by the formula CH3CH=CHCO2H. It is called crotonic acid because it was erroneously thought to be a saponification product of croton oil. It crysta ...

, crotonic resin, and various

carcinogenic A carcinogen is any substance, radionuclide, or radiation that promotes carcinogenesis (the formation of cancer). This may be due to the ability to damage the genome or to the disruption of cellular metabolic processes. Several radioactive substan ...

phorbol Phorbol is a natural, plant-derived organic compound. It is a member of the tigliane family of diterpenes. Phorbol was first isolated in 1934 as the hydrolysis product of croton oil, which is derived from the seeds of the purging croton, '' Croto ...

derivatives. Croton tiglium - Autumn leaves

References

External links

''Croton tiglium'' List of Chemicals (Dr. Duke's Databases)
tiglium Flora of China Flora of Eastern Asia Flora of the Indian subcontinent Flora of Indo-China Flora of Malesia Plants used in traditional Chinese medicine Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus {{Euphorbiaceae-stub