What is Chinese herb Croton Seed (Ba Dou) used for?

What is croton seed?
Known in the West as semina crotonis, it is the dry ripe fruit of purging croton plant in Euphorbiaceae. Its root, bark, and leaves are also being used medicinally. Croton plant is evergreen tree from 6 to 10 meters high. Now most of them are cultivated plant and in the wild it grows in valley, brook sides, wilderness, and woods sometimes.

It is gathered in autumn when the fruits get ripe. Typically it needs two or three days to pile up, spread, and dry them. After that, peel and take the kernels, which can be used for external use by powder or plaster. Else, make it defatted powder for pill or direct use. By the way, those with larger, plump, light yellowish-white kernel are preferred medicinally.

What is it used for?
It is acrid, hot and poisonous in nature and influences stomach, lung, and large intestine meridians. Its main clinical usage and indications are to purge cold pileup, open the orifices, remove phlegm, and promote diuresis, etc. Its regular dosage is from 0.3 to 0.6 grams. Clinically the initial dosage should start from 0.3 grams and 0.1 grams added gradually each time if failed to work.

Weight loss by croton seed?
Does it help on losing weight? The answer is yes but obviously it is not a good idea. It vigorously purges because of the fatty oil from its kernel. The mechanism of reducing weight by croton seeds is simply because it dehydrates, which helps nothing but great harm to your health by a large dosages and/or long term usage. So, it is a myth and big no-no on weight loss issue. Mind you, don’t try it easily if you are not ready for the consequence you don’t expect.