SEMEN RICINI. .307 



Uses — Croton seeds are not administered. The oil is given 

 internally as a powerful cathartic, and is applied externally as a 

 rubefacient. 



Substitutes — The seeds of Croton Favance Hamilton, a native of 

 Ava and Camrup (Assam), and those of C. oblong i foil as Roxb., a small 

 tree common about Calcutta, are said to resemble those of C. Tlgl'nnu L., 

 but we have not compared them. Those o^ Baliospermurn viont'ivuni 

 Mlill. Arg. {Croton iwlymidvus Roxb.) partake of the nature of croton 

 seeds, and according to Roxburgh are used by the natives of India as 

 a purgative. 



SEMEN RICINI. 



Semen Cataputicv majoris; Castor Oil Seeds, Palmn Christl Seeds; 



Y . Semence de Ricin ; G. Eicinussamcu. 



Botanical Origin — Eicinus communis L.,the castor oil plant, is a 

 native of India where it bears several ancient Sanskrit names.' By 

 cultivation, it has been distributed through all the tropical and many 

 of the temperate countries of the globe. In the regions most favourable 

 to its growth, it attains a height of 40 feet. In the Azores, and the 

 warmer Mediterranean countries as Algeria, Egypt, Greece, and the 

 Riviera, it becomes a small tree, 10 to 15 feet high; while in France, 

 Germany, and the south of England, it is an annual herb of noble foliag^e, 

 growing to a height of 4 or 5 feet. In good summers, it ripens seeds m 

 England and even as far north as Christiania in Norway. 



Eicinus communis exhibits a large number of varieties, several of 

 which have been described and figured as distuict species. MuUcr, 

 after a careful examination of the whole series, maintains them as a 

 single species, of which he allows IG forms, more or less well marked.- 



History— The castor oil plant was known to Herodotus who pdls 

 It K!Ki, and states that it furnishes an oil much used by the JL^gyptians, 

 m whose ancient tombs seeds of Ricinus are, in fact, met with At tne 

 period when Herodotus wrote, it would appear to have been already in- 

 troduced into Greece, where it is cultivated to the present day under 

 the same ancient name.* The KiMjon of the Book of Jonah, rjj^d^r i 

 by the translators of the English Bible gourd, is believed to be the same 

 plant. KIkc is also mentioned by Strabo as a production oihgypt, the 

 od from which is used for burning in lamps and for unguents. 

 ^ Theophrastus and Nicander give the castor ml plant the i aine ot 

 KpoVco.. Dioscorides. who calls it KIkc ov Kporm, ^^^^;,^^^^;i7,,^^ 

 the stature of a small tig-tree, with leaves like a plan<^, "^^ the 

 Pnckly pericarp, observing that the name K p or m ib f}l\ r^ . 

 feed on account of its resemblance to an in.sect [^^^'^''/I'f'l"^^^^ 

 known by that appellation. He also gives an f ^^""\,f • *^' .P^t for 

 or extracting ca^lor oil (K/..o. A«,o.), ^^^^ ZtlZ 

 food, but is used externally in medicine; he lepiescnis 



1 



^The most ancient and most usual is !^^7j"':^ VllhilflaJzen Gmchenlamis, 



^randa ; this word has passed into several \ Heldrejch ^ ut.j^pn^^^^ ^ 



other Indian languages. Athen, 1S62. 58. 

 De CandoUe, Prodr., xv. sect. 2. 1017. 



