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Herb library · Herb · Jatropha curcas

Physic nut

A hedge shrub of the tropical Americas whose oily seeds were a violent purge in Caribbean folk medicine. The seeds are poisonous: eating them causes vomiting and diarrhea, and children are the usual victims.

Serious warning

The seeds are poisonous. In a French poison-center series, all 24 adults and children who ate physic nut seeds or fruit had nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and belly pain within hours, some with dehydration and kidney strain. A Thai poison center reported 75 children poisoned after eating the seeds.

Traditional use

Barham, writing of Jamaica in the early 1700s, records that three to five seeds were taken as a purge that worked "upwards and downwards," that the seeds were roasted, peeled and steeped in wine to soften them, that the oil was rubbed on the stomach for worms and used on the itch and on sores, and that in Brazil the oil was burned in lamps. Today the plant is grown widely in the tropics for its seed oil, which is why poisonings are becoming more common.

What studies show

  • Insufficient

    Constipation, worms, skin complaints: no study of physic nut in people was found. What is documented in people is poisoning from eating the seeds.

Be careful of

Cautions

  • NoteDo not eat the seeds or fruit, and do not take the oil by mouth. Keep the seeds away from children, who are the most often poisoned.
  • NoteThe seed oil contains phorbol esters, compounds that irritate the skin and eyes in lab studies. Wash off sap or oil that gets on the skin, and keep it out of the eyes.
  • PregnancyNever use it in pregnancy or while breastfeeding.
  • Ask a clinicianIf anyone swallows the seeds or oil, call Poison Control (1-800-222-1222 in the U.S.) or emergency services. Talk with a clinician before using any part of the plant.

From the old books

What herbals and dispensaries of the past printed. History, in their words.

“They purge strongly upwards and downwards, given from three to five; they may be candied over, and given unknown to nice palates; if the inward film be taken out, they will work more gently.”
Henry Barham, Hortus Americanus (1794), p. 141. See the page of Hortus Americanus, p. 141 (opens in a new tab) · Read the full passage from Hortus Americanus, p. 141

Sources

  1. Poisoning with Jatropha curcas: 24 cases reported to Paris and Marseille Poisons Centers (Bull Soc Pathol Exot, 2015) — PubMed record (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026
  2. Toxicity from ingestion of Jatropha curcas ('saboo dum') seeds in Thai children (Southeast Asian J Trop Med Public Health, 2011) — PubMed record (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026
  3. Jatropha curcas - poisoning (Indian J Pediatr, 2005) — PubMed record (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026
  4. Occular and dermal toxicity of Jatropha curcas phorbol esters (Ecotoxicol Environ Saf, 2013) — PubMed record (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026

Reviewed September 25, 2026.