PHARMACOPCIAL VEGETABLE DRUGS. 
CROTON TIGLIUM 
The genus croton, established by Linnzus in 1737, is extensive, 
625 species being recognized in the Index Kewensis. We have a num- 
ber of herbaceous species in this country, but none of any economic 
importance. - The croton plant is a native of India and is grown all 
through the East Indies. It is a small tree fifteen to twenty feet high. 
Croton tiglium is considered indigenous to Malabar, Ceylon, Am- 
boina (of the Molucca Islands), the Philippines, and Java. Joannes 
Scott (588a), in his dissertation on the medicinal plants of Ceylon 
(Edinburgh, 1819), states that the seeds of Croton tiglium under the 
name of “gayapala” are a most powerful purgative, and also that the 
leaves are very acrid, causing an intolerable burning in the mouth and 
throat. 
Dr. Irvine, in 1848, gave a short account of the materia medica of 
Patna (part of the province of Bengal) mentioning “jamalgoota,” 
which he stated is derived from croton tiglium and several other species 
of croton. The croton seeds furnish a violent purge and are made into 
pills with ginger and “kutkaranja or kath karanja seeds,” which he ex- 
plains are known as bonduc nut (the febrifuge seed of caesalpinia bon- 
ducella, or nicker tree). 
More recently, Mr. O. Weynton (682) calls attention to the occur- 
rence of croton tiglium in all parts of the fertile and wealthy province 
of Assam, especially in the dry districts. He states that the demand for 
the drug is small and that the plant has a tendency to spread. Hence 
efforts are being made to restrict the growth and keep it within certain 
bounds. 
The ancient Hindu physicians were not acquainted with the drug, 
which seems to have originated in China, from whence at an early day 
the seeds were also introduced into Persia (where they are now called 
dand), by way of the caravan routes of Central Asia. Subsequently 
the Arabs derived their knowledge of the seeds from the Persians, their 
name, hab-el-kathai (Cathay seeds), being in turn suggestive of the 
Chinese origin (209). Some of the vernacular Indian names, according 
to Dymock, seem to indicate that the plant reached India through the 
Himalayan province of Nepal (209). 
The drug was imported into Europe by the Dutch during the six- 
teenth century. The first account of the croton tiglium plant in Euro- 
pean literature, however, must be credited to the Portuguese physician 
Christoval Acosta, who in 1578 described the wood as lignum pavanz 
( or L. panave o1 L. moluccense), and the seeds as pini nuclei moluc- 
cani (3). The prominent writings of Rheede ( 1678), who gives the 
Malayan name cadel avanacu (547), Ray (1688) and others subse- 
quently, gave the drug due consideration, while C. Bauhinus (1671) 
differentiated between several synonyms of the seeds and woods that 
were then in use. To Caspar Commelyn (1667-1731) is attributed the 
first use of the name cataputiz minores for the seeds, while the well- 
known synonym grana tiglii is also stated to have been originated in 
his time. And yet this author’s work on the Flora Malabarica ( 1696) 
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