Medicinal Herbs

Croton Extract

Croton tonkinensis

Khổ sâm (Croton tonkinensis) is a small shrub of about seventy centimetres to a metre. Its lance-shaped leaves, five to ten centimetres long, sit alternately along the stem or in false whorls of three to six, and both faces carry glinting shield-shaped scales, denser underneath, so a dried leaf shows silvery white below and dark brown above. Small flowers open in the leaf axils and at the shoot tips, and the fruit splits into three reddish-brown valves. The dried leaf is the part sold; it is toasted until golden and simmered in water. The name means bitter ginseng.