Croton oil is an oil prepared from the seeds of Croton

Croton (genus)

Croton is an extensive flowering plant genus in the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, established by Carl Linnaeus in 1737. The plants of this genus were described and introduced to Europeans by Georg Eberhard Rumphius. The common names for this genus are rushfoil and croton, but the latter also...

 tiglium, a tree belonging to the natural order Euphorbiales

Euphorbiales

Euphorbiales is the botanical name of an order of flowering plants. Such an order has been recognized by relatively few taxonomists.In the APG II system the plants involved are placed in order Malpighiales...

 and family Euphorbiaceae

Euphorbiaceae

Euphorbiaceae, the Spurge family are a large family of flowering plants with 300 genera and around 7,500 species. Most are herbs, but some, especially in the tropics, are also shrubs or trees. Some are succulent and resemble cacti....

, and native or cultivated in India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 and the Malay Archipelago

Malay Archipelago

The Malay Archipelago refers to the archipelago between mainland Southeastern Asia and Australia. The name was derived from the anachronistic concept of a Malay race....

. Small doses taken internally cause diarrhea

Diarrhea

Diarrhea , also spelled diarrhoea, is the condition of having three or more loose or liquid bowel movements per day. It is a common cause of death in developing countries and the second most common cause of infant deaths worldwide. The loss of fluids through diarrhea can cause dehydration and...

. Externally, the oil can cause irritation and swelling. In traditional Chinese medicine

Traditional Chinese medicine

Traditional Chinese Medicine refers to a broad range of medicine practices sharing common theoretical concepts which have been developed in China and are based on a tradition of more than 2,000 years, including various forms of herbal medicine, acupuncture, massage , exercise , and dietary therapy...

 it is used as an ingredient in some liniment

Liniment

Liniment , from the Latin linere, to anoint, is a medicated topical preparation for application to the skin. Preparations of this type are also called balm...

s.

Croton oil is the source of the organic compound phorbol

Phorbol

Phorbol is a natural, plant-derived organic compound. It is a member of the tigliane family of diterpenes. It was first isolated in 1934 as the hydrolysis product of croton oil, which is derived from the seeds of Croton tiglium. Phorbol's structure was determined in 1967...

. Today croton oil is the basis of rejuvenating chemical peels, due to the caustic exfoliating effects it has on the dermal components of the skin. Used in conjunction with phenol solutions, it results in an intense reaction which leads to initial skin sloughing and then eventual regeneration.

Since croton oil is very irritating and painful, it is used in laboratory animals to study how pain

Pain

Pain is an unpleasant sensation often caused by intense or damaging stimuli such as stubbing a toe, burning a finger, putting iodine on a cut, and bumping the "funny bone."...

 works, pain-relieving and anti-inflammatory

Anti-inflammatory

Anti-inflammatory refers to the property of a substance or treatment that reduces inflammation. Anti-inflammatory drugs make up about half of analgesics, remedying pain by reducing inflammation as opposed to opioids, which affect the central nervous system....

 drugs, and immunology

Immunology

Immunology is a broad branch of biomedical science that covers the study of all aspects of the immune system in all organisms. It deals with the physiological functioning of the immune system in states of both health and diseases; malfunctions of the immune system in immunological disorders ; the...

.

During World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, the United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

 added a small amount of croton oil to the neutral grain spirits which powered torpedo

Torpedo

The modern torpedo is a self-propelled missile weapon with an explosive warhead, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater towards a target, and designed to detonate either on contact with it or in proximity to it.The term torpedo was originally employed for...

es. The oil was intended to prevent sailors from drinking the alcohol fuel. Sailors devised crude still

Still

A still is a permanent apparatus used to distill miscible or immiscible liquid mixtures by heating to selectively boil and then cooling to condense the vapor...

s to separate the alcohol from the croton oil, as alcohol evaporates at a lower temperature than croton oil.

Croton oil is also more effective for production of biodiesel

Biodiesel

Biodiesel refers to a vegetable oil- or animal fat-based diesel fuel consisting of long-chain alkyl esters. Biodiesel is typically made by chemically reacting lipids with an alcohol....

 than Jatropha

Jatropha

Jatropha is a genus of approximately 175 succulent plants, shrubs and trees , from the family Euphorbiaceae. The name is derived from the Greek words ἰατρός , meaning "physician," and τροφή , meaning "nutrition," hence the common name physic nut. Mature plants produce separate male and female...

. One can obtain 0.35 litres of biofuel from a kilo of croton nuts.

In "The Bulletin" (9 Dowry Square

Dowry Square

Dowry Square is in the Hotwells area of Bristol.It was laid out in 1727 by George Tully and building continued until 1750. The houses are three-storeyed with attics, simply detailed and with channelled pilasters to the party walls....

, Hot Wells, May 29, 1845) by the Reverend Richard Harris Barham

Richard Harris Barham

Richard Harris Barham was an English cleric of the Church of England, novelist, and humorous poet. He was known better by his nom de plume Thomas Ingoldsby.-Life:Richard Harris Barham was born in Canterbury...

, a medically-inspired poem to relieve the anxiety of a very dear friend, and written a month before Barham's death on June 17, 1845, the attending doctor to his patient advises amongst other treatments for a sore throat that is producing barely a sound:
—[...]"Please put out your tongue again!/Now the blister!/Ay, the blister!/ Let your son, or else his sister,/Warm it well, then clap it here, sir,/All across from ear to ear, sir;/That suffices,/When it rises,/Snip it, sir, and then your throat on/Rub a little oil of Croton:/Never mind a little pain!/Please put out your tongue again!" [...] The patient was Barham, who had accidentally swallowed a piece of pear core that got into his windpipe on October 28, 1844. "Despite" the "professional" advice and the very painful and "highest quality" treatments of the time being given freely to him by Doctors Roberts and Scott, and the eminent surgeon Mr. Coulson, for "violent vomiting", "inflamed throat", and then catching "a cold" in April, 1845, Barham died.

In John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck

John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and the novella Of Mice and Men...

's novel East of Eden, Kate used it to slowly murder Faye and inherit her whorehouse.

In El Dorado starring John Wayne

John Wayne

Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...

, cayenne pepper

Cayenne pepper

The cayenne pepper—also known as the Guinea spice,cow-horn pepper, aleva, bird pepper,or, especially in its powdered form, red pepper—is a red, hot chili pepper used to flavor dishes and for medicinal purposes. Named for the city of Cayenne in French Guiana, it is a cultivar of Capsicum annuum...

, mustard (the hot kind), ipecac

Syrup of ipecac

Syrup of ipecac , commonly referred to as ipecac, is derived from the dried rhizome and roots of the ipecacuanha plant, and is a well known emetic .-Preparation:...

, asafoetida

Asafoetida

Asafoetida , alternative spelling asafetida, is the dried latex exuded from the living underground rhizome or tap root of several species of Ferula, which is a perennial herb...

, croton oil, and gunpowder

Gunpowder

Gunpowder, also known since in the late 19th century as black powder, was the first chemical explosive and the only one known until the mid 1800s. It is a mixture of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate - with the sulfur and charcoal acting as fuels, while the saltpeter works as an oxidizer...

 are the ingredients in an emetic administered to Robert Mitchum

Robert Mitchum

Robert Charles Durman Mitchum was an American film actor, author, composer and singer and is #23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time...

's drunken sheriff to sober him up and prevent him from drinking for the foreseeable future. Arthur Hunnicutt

Arthur Hunnicutt

Arthur Lee Hunnicutt was an American actor known for his portrayal of wise, grizzled, old rural characters...

's character Bull expresses great surprise that the extract's use will be risked.

In Bernard Cornwell

Bernard Cornwell

Bernard Cornwell OBE is an English author of historical novels. He is best known for his novels about Napoleonic Wars rifleman Richard Sharpe which were adapted into a series of Sharpe television films.-Biography:...

's American Civil War novel Copperhead, croton oil is used to torture the protagonist, Nathaniel Starbuck, in an attempt to get him to confess to a crime. In the sequel, The Bloody Ground, an officer of the punishment battalion Starbuck is in command of, rubs croton oil into his face (causing sores) to make it appear he has a skin disease which makes it impossible for him to fight.

In Thomas Wolfe

Thomas Wolfe

Thomas Clayton Wolfe was a major American novelist of the early 20th century.Wolfe wrote four lengthy novels, plus many short stories, dramatic works and novellas. He is known for mixing highly original, poetic, rhapsodic, and impressionistic prose with autobiographical writing...

's novel, Look Homeward Angel Gus Moody uses croton oil to stop Steve Gant's whiskey pilferage.

In the end of little-known Portuguese author Maria Archer's book "Casa sem pão" (A house without bread), the protagonist, Adriana, uses croton oil to kill her husband, thus exacting revenge on him for many years of unhappy and unfaithful marriage.