Plants and their extract have the potential to cure the infirmity of mankind. From ancient times herbal plants are used for treatment. Croton tiglium Linn belongs to the family of Euphorbiaceae is widely distributed throughout the plain of India. Jayapala (Croton tiglium) is one among the upa vishas and a well-known plant in Indian system of medicine as certain number of formulations includes this drug as an ingredient after proper purification. The word Upavisha means nearer to visha i.e. drugs which possess the same qualities of visha, but not that much potent. Also it is one of the known purgative drugs in Ayurveda with huge therapeutic values. This review article includes overall information about the plant Croton tiglium, its botanical description, toxicological aspect, treatment in both Ayurveda and Modern toxicology, its shodhana (purification) processes, FT- IR, GC-MS for component identification.
