Croton tiglium Linn.
Family Euphorbiaceae.
Habitat Native to South-East Asia. Now cultivated in Assam, Bengal and South India.
English Purging Croton.
Ayurvedic Jayapaala, Dravanti, Dantibija, Tintidiphala.
Unani Habb-us-Salaateen, Jamaalgotaa, Hubb-ul-Malook.
Siddha/Tamil Nervaalam.
Action Cathartic, rubefacient, irritant. Used in ascites, anasarca, dropsy and enlargement of abdominal viscera.
The seed oil is purgative. It produces severe symptoms of toxicity when taken internally or applied externally to the skin.
Croton oil showed tumour-promoting activity on mouse skin. The skin irritant and tumour promoting diterpene esters of the tigliane type (phorbol esters) and toxins have been isolated from the seeds. (In China, where the herb is employed for the treatment of gastro-intestinal disturbances, the highest incidence of nasopharyngeal cancer has been reported.) 1 ml oil is usually fatal. Phorbols (terpenoids) from nonvolatile oil are
Cucumis prophetarum Linn. 181
toxic. Crotin, a toxic albuminous sub- Ctenolepis cerasiformis Naud. stance, is not extracted in the oil. The
plant caused haematuria and swelling Family Cucurbitaceae.
of lymph glands in animals. Habitat Wild on wastelands in
Dosage Seed—6—12 mg powder. Gujarat.
(API Vol. IV.) Ayurvedic Shankhini.
(Also equated with Corivolvulus
arvenis L.)
Cryptolepis buchanani Folk Aankha-phuutaa-mani
Roem. & Schult. (Gujarat).
Action Emetic, drastic purgative.
Family Asclepiadaceae; Periplo- Used for internal tumours and
caceae.
abscesses. (C.R.A. 1/)
Habitat Throughout India.
