Purging Croton Seed

Primarily produced in Chinese provinces of Sichuan, Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou.

Oval shape, generally with three ridges. Externally grayish-yellow or slightly dark and rough. Presents with 6 longitudinal lines, flat top end, and a scar from remnants of the stem on the base. After opening the seed coat, it presents with 3 chambers with one kernel each. Seed is slightly flat oval shaped and brown to greyish-brown, with a small punctuate scar of hilum and carbuncle on one end, and slightly concave chalaza on the other end. A bulged raphe is present in the middle. The outer seed coat is thin and brittle, the inner seed coat is white, thin and membranous; the kernel is yellowish-white and oily. Odor faint; taste is acrid and spicy.

Superior medicinal material consists of large and full seeds with yellowish-white kernel.

Acrid, hot, very toxic.

Externally used for sores. Apply to treat ulcers and scabies, mammilla and warts.

Ba dou shuang: even granules, incompact oily shallow yellow powders. Tastes acrid; hot and very toxic. Belongs to stomach and large intestine meridian. Dispersing stasis, dispelling retained water, dispersing swelling, removing phlegm, benefiting throat, external application for phagedenoma. Constipation induced by cold accumulation, retention of food, edema of inferior belly, unsmooth urine and stool, laryngeal trouble, pharyngitis; externally applied to non-break carbuncle abscess, treat ulcers and scabies, mammilla and warts.