English: Croton Oil Plant
Tagalog: Tuba
An erect or more or less spreading shrub or very small tree.
- Leaves: alternate, ovate 7 to 12 cm in length, usually somewhat rounded at the base, pointed at the tip and toothed at the margins.
- Flowers: very small and borne on terminal inflorescence, with the female flowers situated toward the base of each inflorescence.
- Fruits: capsules, ellipsoid, or obscurely 3-angled, 1.5 to 2 cm long and contains a single seed. Seed: ovoid or oblong, 12 to 15 mm in length and 3-angled, the testa dark-brown or blackish, thin and brittle and of faint odor; the albumen and the embryo are yellowish. Seeds are at first mild in taste and subsequent acrid and pungent.
Distribution
Usually planted, in and about towns, throughout the Philippines; naturalized in some places.
Parts utilized
- Roots and fresh leaves.
- Roots collected year round
- Rinse, cut into sections, and sun-dry.
Characteristics and Pharmacological Effects:
Pungent taste, warming, antipyretic, aids in gastrointestinal disorders, and antiinflammatory.
Toxic in excessive internal use.
Medicinal uses
- For rheumatic pains of the legs and waist: use 3 to 6 gms of dried material in the form of decoction.
- Pounded fresh leaves may be applied as poultice for snakebites or may be used as insecticide.
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