Croton tiglium


Croton tiglium, known as purging croton, is a plant species in the family Euphorbiaceae. C. tiglium is also called jamaal gota in India.

Traditional uses

Croton tiglium is one of the 50 fundamental herbs used in traditional Chinese medicine, 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 and in Sanskrit. The seeds are called Jamālgoṭa in Hindi, Marathi, and Urdu, and are well-known for their toxicity. They are used to treat constipation after the seeds have undergone a traditional Ayurvedic detoxification process with cow's milk. This is referred to as Śodhana, a general term for detoxification. The plant is poisonous with the bark used as an arrow poison and the seeds used to poison fish.

Chemical constituents

Major known chemical constituents are crotonoleic acid, glyceryl crotonate, crotonic acid, crotonic resin, and various carcinogenic phorbol derivatives.