Croton oil (Crotonis oleum) is an oil prepared from the seeds ofCroton tiglium,[1] a tree belonging to the orderEuphorbiales and familyEuphorbiaceae, and native or cultivated inIndia and theMalay Archipelago. Small doses taken internally causediarrhea.[1] Externally, the oil can cause irritation and swelling. Croton oil is used in Phenol-croton oil chemical peels[2] for its caustic exfoliating effects it has on the skin.[3] Used in conjunction withphenol solutions, it results in an intense reaction that leads to initial skin sloughing. Since croton oil is very irritating and painful, it is used in laboratory animals to study howpain works,pain-relieving andanti-inflammatory drugs, andimmunology.[4]
Because croton tiglium oil iscocarcinogenic, it has been used in tumor research.[5] Berenblum and Shubik saw croton oil as a “promoting” agent:[6] a kind of carcinogen that acted through an inflammatory response. Mice painted only with croton oil hadn’t developed tumors. Croton oil is the source of thechemical compoundphorbol.[7]Tumor promotion activity was traced tophorbol esters present in croton oil.[8] Purephorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate, which is found in croton oil, is widely used in laboratory research to induce tumor development.
DuringWorld War II, theUnited States Navy added a small amount of croton oil to theneutral grain spirits that poweredtorpedoes. The oil was intended to prevent sailors from drinking the alcohol fuel. Sailors devised crudestills to separate the alcohol from the croton oil, as alcohol evaporates at a lower temperature than croton oil.[9]
Norwegian partisans among workers at a factory, ordered by theQuisling government to turn over a catch ofsardines to the Nazi German government for shipment toSaint-Nazaire (aU-boat base of operations) arranged with the British for a large shipment of croton oil to covertly poison the sardines, whose fishy taste was expected to conceal the tampering.[10]
In "The Bulletin" (9Dowry Square, Hot Wells, May 29, 1845,) the ReverendRichard Harris Barham wrote a medically inspired poem to relieve the anxiety of a very dear friend a month before his own death on June 17, 1845. The attending doctor advises his patient, among 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 by the eminent surgeon Mr. Coulson, for "violent vomiting", "inflamed throat", and catching "a cold" in April 1845, Barham died.
"Medicinal" croton oil was supplied in theCalifornia Genocide to dying Indian groups.[11]
InThomas Wolfe's 1929 novelLook Homeward Angel, 18-year-old Steve Gant and a friend sneak into neighbors' barn. In the barn, Steve and his friend find a liquor bottle that the husband hid from the wife; they drink the entire bottle. For revenge, the husband refills the bottle with croton oil. When Steve and his friend return to the barn and find the bottle refilled, they drink from it. This time they get very sick.
InJohn Steinbeck's novelEast of Eden, published in 1952, Kate uses it to murder Faye and inherit her whorehouse. Faye is poisoned with a combination of firststrychnine (unsuccessfully) and then two drops of croton oil, on a salad ofhome-canned beans, mimicking accidentalbotulism poisoning. To allay suspicion, Kate also poisons herself withcáscara sagrada which gives the samecathartic symptoms, but to a non-fatal degree.[12][13] Steinbeck also alludes to croton oil inIn Dubious Battle, chapter 7.[14]
In the movieThey Rode West, released in 1954 and starringRobert Francis, an Army post's previous physician was widely disliked because he frequently prescribed croton oil for the troops.
In the 1966 movieEl Dorado starringJohn Wayne,cayenne pepper, hotmustard,ipecac,asafoetida, croton oil, andgunpowder are the ingredients in anemetic administered to the drunken sheriff J. P. Harrah (Robert Mitchum) to sober him up and prevent him from drinking for the foreseeable future.Arthur Hunnicutt's character Bull expresses great surprise that the extract's use will be risked.
InBernard Cornwell's 1994 historical fictionCopperhead, the second book ofThe Starbuck Chronicles, Nate Starbuck is force fed croton oil over a number of days whilst being interrogated by the Confederate authorities after he is accused of being involved in the attempted passing of sensitive military information to the Union.[15]