CROTON TIGLIUM. ORD. XXXIX. Tricocce. 73 
QUALITIES AND CHEMICAL PRoPERTIES, &e. Oil of Croton is of an 
orange or deep yellow colour, with a peculiar odour, swi generis; and an ex- 
tremely acrid and pungent taste. Dr. Nimmo of Glasgow, found 100 parts 
of this oil to consist of 45 percent. of an acrid purgative principle, soluble 
in volatile and fixed oils, alcohol and sulphuric ether; and 55 per cent. of a 
bland oil, (resembling oil of olives) insoluble in alcohol. According to the 
experiments of Mr. Frost,* one hundred grains of the seeds consist of thirty- 
two shell, sixty-eight kernel. On digesting one hundred grains of the seeds 
in three drachms of sulphuric ether, sp. grav. seventy-one, afforded twenty- 
five grains of fixed oil. Thirty-two grains of the oil were put into a Florence 
flask, containing some alcohol previously digested on olive oil, to prevent the 
spirit from dissolving any of the oil of the Croton Tigliwm seed. The mixture 
was now agitated, and then passed through a filter containing carbonate of 
ammonia; the filtered solution was then evaporated without heat, and 
yielded—active matter, (soluble in alcohol and ether) combined with a very 
small portion of fixed oil, 8—5 grs., inert fixed oil, 23.5,— 32 grs. 
It appears the Croton oil of commerce is usually very much adulterated, 
either with the oil of olives or castor, and differing in strength ten-fold ; the 
consequence of prescribing a medicine of such unequal powers must be ob- 
vious. Dr. Nimmo has made some experiments, for the purpose of detecting 
this fraud. Dr. Nimmo digested the suspected oil in alcohol, which will dis- 
solve a less proportion of the Croton oil, if adulterated with olive oil; and a 
larger proportion if mixed with castor oil; but it is evident, the test must fail, 
if the adulteration be with a combination of both. 
Mepicau Prorerries AND Uses. Every part of the Croton Tiglium 
tree is said to possess medical properties. We are told, that in the Eastern 
nations,t it is valued for its purgative, diaphoretic, and diuretic properties ; 
the roots, as well as the seeds, are powerfully cathartic, and used in Batavia 
and other parts as a specific for dropsy ; the wood of the trunk and branches, 
in small doses, acts upon the skin and kidneys; and the leaves, in powder, 
In the Herbarium Amboinense of Rumphius, published at Amsterdam, 1750, by Bur- 
mann, a description of the Croton is given; the seeds of which, we are told, yield, on 
expression, an oil, which, when taken in the dose of one drop in Canary wine, was, at 
that time a common purgative. 
% See Observations on the properties and effects of the seeds of Croton Tiglium. 
+ Vide Ainslie’s Materia Indica of Hindostan. 
Vou. V. | L 
