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12. Euphorbia tirucalli Linn. Sp. PI. 452. 1753. (Fig. 202).
Euphorbia viminalis Mill.—Euphorbia rhipsaloides Lmr.
EUPHORBIACEAE
Engl. Milk Bush, Milk Hedge, Indian Tree Spurge; Sinh. Navahandi, Tovar; Tarn.
Kalli, Kiri, Kombukkalli, Pachankalli, Parchanu, TirukkaJli, Tiruvatti; Hindi Konpahlsehand.
Sehud, Sehund, Scndh, Shirthohar, Sindh, Thohra; Sans. Bahukshira, Dandaruha, Ganderi,
Snuka, Trikuntaka, Vajradruma.
An erect, smooth, somewhat fleshy shrub or small tree, 2—5 m high, • branches green,
somewhat fleshy, cylindric, smooth, clustered or scattered carrying a milky latex inside; leaves
usually absent in mature branches but the young ones bear leaves, 6—13 mm long, linear—
oblong; flowering involucres clustered in the forks of branchlets, shortly pedicelled, mostly
female, bracteoles numerous, lacerate, campanulate; flowers unisexual monoecious, combined
in an inflorescence of many male florets surrounding a female arranged in a common, 4 - 5-lobed,
perianth-like involucre with 3—5, thick glands, transversely oval peltate, lobes short and hairy;
male flowers are each a stalked stamen without a floral envelope; female flowers also naked
each with a 3-Iocular, superior ovary on an ultimately exserted stalk in the centre of the involucre;
styles 3, short, recurved, 2-fid; capsule 5 mm long, cocci compressed, velvety, seeds ovoid
and smooth.
Illustrations. Kirtikar and Basu, Indian Med. Plants, pi. 849B. 1933; Watt and Bryer-
Brandwijk, Medicinal and Poisonous Plants of E. & S. Africa, ph. 125 and 126. 1962.
Distribution. A native of Southern Rhodesia and now naturalized in India. Ceylon and
planted in most tropical countries.
Ceylon. Peradeniya, Bot.' Gard., cultivated, Herb. Peradeniya, Oct. 1901.
Composition. The crude latex contains resin, caoutchouc, euphorbone and other compounds
analogous to euphorbone.
Uses. The stems are used along with other ingredients to serve as poultices for healing
fractures of bones. The milky juice is a warm rubefacient remedy for rheumatism, tooth-ache,
etc. It is applied to itches and scorpion stings. A decoction of the root and tender branches
is given for colic and gastralgia. The fresh juice is applied to remove warts.
In the Philippines, the plant is used as a fish poison. In Tanganyika, the juice is used as
a remedy for sexual impotence, mosquito repellent and fish poison and the root as an emetic
in the treatment of snake-bite. In Malabar and Moluccas the latex is used as an emetic and
antisyphilitic. Rice boiled with the latex is used to narcotize and poison crows.
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