An erect or more or less spreading shrub or small tree, native of SE Asia, and introduced to the W African region. Its dispersal in Asia appears to be primarily anthropogenic for it is found usually around villages. It will grow on very poor soil and in Malaya it has been reported to have some potential in suppressing lalang grass, Imperata cylindrica (Linn.) Rauschel.The plant is of very ancient cultivation being known in Sanskritic and early Chinese materia medica and the seeds and seed-oil have entered numerous official pharmacopoeias as powerful cathartics. As the oil is not stable, it has proved unreliable as a medication and has therefore been dropped from normal medical use.All parts of the plant contain toxic substances. The leaves and the bark furnish arrow-poison to certain races in SE Asia. The leaves are reported used for poulticing snake-bite, and the roots to induce abortion. The oil has use in SE Asia as a fish-poison and for criminal adulteration of wells. It contains an extremely vesicant resin, crotonol. Crotin, a delayed-action poison which causes blood-clotting, is also present.Symptoms of croton oil poisoning are firstly pain at the back of the throat, then in the anus. A dose of bismuth is an immediate antidote.The oil can be used for soap-making and illumination, though in the latter instance noxious fumes are released causing, in a confined space, severe illness. The seed-cake retains the crotin and is thus not suitable for cattle-feed.