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EUPHORBIACEAE -
5. Croton tiglium Linn. Sp. PI. 1004. 1753. (Fig. 195).
Croton jamaigota Ham.—Croton parana Ham.—Croton camaza Pcrr.—Croton glanduhsum
Blanco—Croton muricatum Blanco—Tiglium officinale Klotzsch.
Engl. Purging Croton; Sinh. Jayapala; Tarn. Kattukkattai, Naganam, Nagandi,
Nervalam, Nigumbam, Nirvalam, Sam bar i, Sayabalam, Sevalangottai, Siduram, Sittudu, Tendi;
Hindi Jamaigota; Sans. Danti, Jayapala, Nepala.
A small tree, 3—7 m tall with a rather crooked trunk but smooth bark; branches slender,
smooth, terete, bark paler, whitish-brown, marked with scars of fallen leaves; leaves simple,
alternate, on stalks nearly half as long as the blade which is about 8—14.5cm long, 4.5—7 cm
broad, thin, glabrous, ovate, faintly and rather distantly serrate, bright green,
veins prominent beneath, petioles breaking up immediately on entering the leaf into 5 veins,
the two lateral ones faint, the two intermediate well marked, giving with the midrib a triplenerved
aspect of the leaf; on either side of the base of the blade and connected with the petiole
is a prominent sessile gland; stipules minute, filiform, deciduous; young leaves and buds wuh
scattered stellate hairs; flowers unisexual in lax, terminal, erect racemes, the male flowers on
the upper part of the raceme, the female less numerous on the lower part, pedicels longer than
the flowers, bracts minute; male flowers yellowish, about 7 mm in diameter, calyx of
5 spreading, broadly triangular, blunt sepals 2.5 mm long, 1.5 mm broad, valvate, apices pubescent;
petals 5, inserted on the flat receptacle, alternate with and reflexed between sepals, 2.5 mm
Jong, 0.7 mm broad, oblong—linear, blunt, set with rather long white hairs above, glabrous
beneath, whitish; a prominent roundish yellow gland stands within each sepal, alternating with
the petals; stamens 14—20, as long as petals, one opposite each petal and sepal, the remainder
irregularly dispersed over the receptacle which is covered with short, white hairs, anthers small,
broad, innate, cells semilunar; female flowers about 3 mm across, dark green; calyx deeply
5-partite, divisions 2 mm long, 0.7 mm broad, ovate, acute, tipped with hairs, spreading or
reflexed, set with few or more numerous stellate hairs and with a small, rounded prominence
at the angle between each, glands 5, blunt, prominent, opposite the sepals as in male flowers,
petals absent; ovary sessile, 1 mm long, thickly covered with stellate hairs, 3-locular with a
single pendulous ovule in each loculus, styles 3, bifid; fruit slightly inflated, pale, smooth,
brownish-yellow, capsular with a single, large seed inside each chamber; seeds albuminous,
1.2 cm long, 1 cm wide, ovoid, rounded at the back, marked on the ventral surface by a fine
raised raphe, testa thin, brittle, light-brown.
Illustrations. Bentley and Trimen, Med. Plants, pi. 239. 1880; Kirtikar and Basu,
Indian Med. Plants, pi. 8725. 1933; Herb. Peradeniya, drawing.
Distribution. ^Occurs in India, Ceylon, Burma, Malaya extending on to New Guinea
and Borneo. In Ceylon, it is found in the dry zone jungles.
India. Sikkim: 7*. Thomson, 1857; Assam' Simons. Calcutta, Wallich 1122D; J. D.
Hooker and T. Thomson, cultivated. Ceylon. Peradeniya, Bot. Gard., Herb. Peradeniya, May
1887; Herb. Peradeniya, 1878, cultivated. Philippine Islands. Luzon, Mount Prov., Benguet,
yalentin 29782, Sept. 1924. Cuba. Santiago de las Vegas, Baker 97, Aug. 1907.
Composition. The seeds possess a fixed oil which contains croton globulin and croton
albumen, arginine and lysine; alkaloid vicinine; lipase; invertase, amylase, raffinase; proteolytic
enzyme, croton resin, tiglic acid, croton oleic acid, stearic, palmitic, myristic, lauric, oenanthrallic,
capronic, valerianic, butyric, isobutyric, acetic and formic acids; tannin, etc.
Uses. The roots, leaves, bark and seeds possess drastic purgative properties. The
bruised root is applied to carbuncles and cancerous sores. The seeds are poisonous and are a
powerful and drastic purgative. The oil extracted from the seeds applied externally is a counterirritant
and a liniment prepared from it, is useful in rheumatism, glandular and other
swellings, chronic bronchitis and other pulmonary affections. The oil is also useful in dropsy,
intestinal obstructions and lead poisoning. The seeds and leaves are used for poisoning fish
by the Dayaks of Borneo and in the Philippine Islands. The leaves are one of the constituents
of the Batak arrow poison.
The oil is a very valuable cathartic and it acts speedilly and powerfully on the bowels.
In Ceylon, the seed is used along with other drugs in fever, constipation in dropsy and as a
drastic purgative for colic, ascites, etc.,
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