Botanical Name: Crotonis Fructus
Ba Dou
Category: Harsh Expellants
Taste: Acrid, Toxic Channels Entered: Lung, Large Intestine, Stomach
Cautions & Contraindications:
- Contraindicated during pregnancy and in weak patients. Always use with extreme caution. Croton oil can cause diarrhea in doses as little as 0.01g. Twenty drops taken internally have been fatal due to massive fluid loss.
Actions & Indications:
- Warmly unblocks and vigorously purges: for severe cold accumulation in the interior leading to constipation and abdominal fullness, distention, and pain.
- Drives out water and reduces edema: for ascites. At present used for ascites due to end-stage schistosomiasis.
- Breaks up clogged phlegm and improves the condition of the throat: for phlegm clogging the throat and causing difficult breathing, wheezing, and severe fullness and distention in the chest and diaphragm. Also for phlegm veiling the sensory orifices.
- Promotes the healing of abscesses and ulcers: used topically for abscesses that have supporated but not yet ulcerated, to accelerate the ulcerating process. Also for severe ulcers.
