Do not eat croton
Posted on February 1st, 2017
Dr. Channa Jayasumana, Courtesy The Island
February 1, 2017, 8:22 pm
People shouldn’t eat any part of the croton plant.All parts of the croton plant contains oil with violently purgative (substances that loosen stools and increase bowel movements) and irritating qualities, which is also suspected of being a co-carcinogen. Even dried plant materials retain their poisonous properties. Although certain South East Asian and South American tribes have the knowledge to detoxify croton leaves, it is a complex procedure. In Chinese medicine croton is used to induce loose motions.
There were few reports over the last couple of days that some people experimented to eat croton leaves, and resulted in abdominal symptoms; however those were not serious cases. It is a surprise why the director general of agriculture pointed out croton as an edible plant, while we have hundreds of eatable plants in the country.
February 2nd, 2017 at 12:38 am
Thank you Dr. Channa for taking a statement made by one top civil servant literally.
But people will not have to eat various kind of leaves whatever bungling the yahapalanaya does, thanks to JR and his Mahaweli scheme which he manged to implement with the help of UK. There was a time villagers were searching for Jack fruit, bread fruit as rice was such a rare commodity then. Perhaps you were not even born at that time. I used to hide rice parcels under the car seat to escape ‘haal polu’ put in place by Mrs. B’s goverment, thanks to her socialist policies of making SL a self reliant economy.
Now RW also creating rosy pictures in the minds of Sri Lankans to make SL a highly industrialized country. He is going to get help from South Indians like Chief Minister of Maharastra, out of all the people. If RW’s handlers can impress him with a third class lecture like what he gave recently then people, who want to vote again for RW need to be fed with grass and punnakku. Please try to suggest a way of making them palatable.