Croton tiglium L. - Euphorbiaceae
purging croton, 巴豆 ba-dou (chin.), Croton, Indischer Purgierstrauch

Small evergreen shrub or tree, up to 7m tall, native to South East Asia (India to Indonesia, China).

„The seed oil contains crotin, tiglic and crotonic acid, and crotonoside, and is very poisonous, being a drastic purgative and often causing pustular eruptions on the skin. The seeds are used to stupefy fish. The root and leaves are used as an external medicine for rheumatalgia and also as an insecticide. http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=620&taxon_id=200012553

„From the seeds of Croton tiglium 50-60% by weight of croton oil may be obtained by either extraction or expression. Croton oil is toxic to amphibia and fish; used internally it is a drastic cathartic, and on skin it is an irritant and vesicant. Diluted with a suitable inactive vehicle, croton oil was used as a counterirritant. However, it acts so powerfully that the oil was deemed unsafe for use either as a cathartic or as a counterirritant…“
The phorbol ester 12-O-tetradecanoyl-phorbol-acetate-13, a diester of phorbol, was recognized as a potent tumor promoter.
[Cocarcinogenic principles from the seed oil of Croton tiglium and from other Euphorbiaceae. Hecker, Erich., Cancer Research, Vol.28(11), 1968, 2338-2348]