Wellcome uses cookies.
Read our policy
Close cookie notification
Skip to main content
Wellcome Collection homepage
Visit us
What’s on
Stories
Collections
Get involved
About us
Sign in to your library account
Search our stories, images, catalogue and events
Library account
Search our stories, images, catalogue and events
Search
Works search
Search the catalogue
Search
All
Stories
Images
Catalogue
Events
Formats
Digital Images (1)
Dates
From
to
Locations
Online (1)
Subjects
Countryside (1)
Garden (1)
Herbal remedies (1)
Petal (1)
Poison (1)
Red (1)
Types/Techniques
Contributors
Dr Henry Oakeley (1)
Languages
Submit
1 result
Search result sorting
Sort by:
Relevance
Production dates
Sort order:
Ascending
Descending
Submit
Page
1
of 1
Digital Images
Online
Euphorbia milii Des Moul. Euphorbiaceae. Crown of Thorns - so called because of its very spiny stems. Distribution: Madagascar. The latex contains a copper-containing amine oxidase, a lectin, lipase, peroxidase, and a diamine oxidase. In vitro the latex is synergistic with ketoconazole against Candida albicans (thrush). All Euphorbia have a toxic white latex, and in Europe this has been used as a folk remedy to treat warts. It can cause skin allergies and the smoke from burning them is toxic. the genus named for Euphorbus (fl. circa 10 BC – 20 AD), the Greek physician to the Berber King Juba II (c. 50 BC – 23 AD) of Numidia, Euphorbia milii is one of the tropical spurges, with fierce, cactus-like spines, grown as a house plant. The sap of spurges is used in folk medicine for treating warts (not very effective), and, historically, as a purgative - the word spurge being derived from the French word for purgation. The sap (probably dried) was administered inside a fig because it is so corrosive that it would otherwise burn the mouth and oesophagus – a technique used today, rather more subtly, with ‘enteric coated’ medications. The sap contains a potential anti-leukaemic chemical, lasiodoplin, and is also used in drainage ditches to kill the snails which carry the parasitic trematode which causes fasciolaris. It does not kill the fish. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
Dr Henry Oakeley
Page
1
of 1