Caper spurge

Statema, B. C. P.

Plant

Caper spurge

Latiri; cataputia minore

Known today as: Euphorbia lathyris.
Kind: Plant, in 1 older authority
Constituents: ingenol, phorbol esters
Poisoning: Gastrointestinal irritants
Earliest authority here: Pliny (AD 23/24–79)
In other databases: Plants of the World Online search · GBIF search · Wikidata search
In the Canale glossary: On the Manner of Discerning and Healing the Bewitched, Appendix A: Part Three, Chapter 5: Vomitory Medicines

Revised October 1, 2026: An older authority added from a text read in full. Lore added from texts read in full. Version 1, first published September 25, 2026.

Caution. Hazardous in some form or dose; see the modern assessment below.

Caper spurge: what did Canale use it for?

Eight or ten seeds whole in an egg, or leaves in broth, as a vomit; its milky sap only with great care (ch. 5; note XXXVII).

Caper spurge: what does modern science say?

The seeds are purgative, the root purgative and emetic, the milky juice acrid, and the leaves blister. Canale’s warning about the sap is sound.

Caper spurge: is it poisonous?

Yes, in some form or dose. Its poisoning is gastrointestinal irritants: Thirty minutes to three hours: the short latency is reassuring, since the deadly syndromes come later. Historical description, not medical advice; in a poisoning, call a poison centre.

Pharmacognosy & Toxicology

Constituents

Mechanism

The diterpene esters activate protein kinase C and inflame skin and gut.

Checked against ChEMBL

ingenol: No measurement in ChEMBL for “activate protein kinase C” (23 activities recorded, none against the target named); the line rests on its references.

Toxic dose

A few seeds purge violently; the latex blisters and blinds.

Syndrome

Gastrointestinal irritants

Standing

Ingenol mebutate, from a related spurge, was licensed for actinic keratosis in 2012 and withdrawn in Europe in 2020.

Nelson, L. S., et al. (2007). Handbook of Poisonous and Injurious Plants. Verified against its record · doi:10.1007/978-1-4939-8926-3

Constituent names open the compound’s record at PubChem, and “ChEMBL” beside a name opens its record at ChEMBL, the European Bioinformatics Institute’s database of bioactive molecules. Where a mechanism line was checked against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37, read 1 October 2026), the check is shown with the measured value and its source paper, or says plainly that nothing has been measured. Doses are as the references give them, for description only; this is not medical advice. Each source carries the result of its check against Crossref, PubMed, or the authority’s page: see Verification.

Caper spurge: what lore surrounds it?

Thiselton-Dyer has the spurges among the devil's plants, “the spurge having long been named ‘devil's milk,’” the sun-spurge nicknamed cat's-milk “from its milky juice oozing in drops, as milk from the small teats of a cat,” and in Scotland “a popular cure for ringworm” being a decoction of sun-spurge, “or, as it is locally termed, ‘mare's milk.’”

Caper spurge: what did the older authorities say?

Pliny: Describes the lathyris, with leaves like the lettuce and buds whose seed is enclosed “in envelopes like that of the caper”: the seeds, about the size of a peppercorn, “white, sweet, and easily cleansed from the husk,” twenty of them taken in water or hydromel “are curative of dropsy, and carry off bile,” and those who need a stronger purgative take more.

Sources

[54] Grieve, M. (1931). A Modern Herbal. Online edition, botanical.com, cited under the plant concerned. Read in part · the text read

Pliny the Elder, Natural History 27.71, trans. J. Bostock & H. T. Riley (1855), Perseus Digital Library. Primary text
Thiselton-Dyer, T. F. (1889). The Folk-lore of Plants. Project Gutenberg #10118. Read in part · the text read

Verification

Checked

October 1, 2026

Passes

Every sentence read against its sources, in the pass over the remaining 343 entries
The Standing line checked against the authority it names (EMA, WHO, FDA, CITES, Commission E)
Every dated or regulatory claim checked by category across the database
The mechanism read against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37): curated mechanisms and measured activity
Each quotation from the older authorities checked word for word against the text, read in full

Sources

4 cited: 2 read in part, 1 verified against its record, 1 primary text.

Corrections

None were needed.

What was checked, how, and what was found is set out on the Verification page. A checked source is one whose record was found; it does not make the entry medical advice.

Cite This Entry

Version 1 · first published September 25, 2026 · last revised October 1, 2026

Chicago: “Caper spurge.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified October 1, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/caper-spurge.
MLA: “Caper spurge.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 1 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/caper-spurge. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
APA: Caper spurge. (2026, October 1). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 8, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/caper-spurge

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