MovieChat Forums > El Dorado (1967) Discussion > Croton oil, Asafoetida, and Ipecac?! Eg...

Croton oil, Asafoetida, and Ipecac?! Egad!

posted 16 years ago by Brian-Albin
14 replies | jump to latest

Some of those are poisons that were once thought medicines.
Here are clips from Wikipedia:

Croton oil is prepared from the seeds of the Croton Tiglium tree, of India and Malay. Small doses taken internally cause diarrhea. Externally, the oil can cause irritation and swelling.
Today, croton oil is the basis of rejuvenating chemical peels, due to the caustic exfoliating effects.

Syrup of Ipecac (derived from the roots of the Ipecacuanha plant), is an emetic—a substance used to induce vomiting. It is used in cases of accidental poisoning. Ipecac was also used in cough mixtures as an expectorant and from the 18th until the early 20th century, Ipecac and opium were used to produce Dover's powder, which was used in syrup form.

Asafoetida, (also known as devil's dung, stinking gum, and giant fennel) is native to Iran.
It is used in lentil dishes to reduce flatulence.
Its odor is so strong as to be nauseating in quantities.
John C Duval reported in 1936 that the odor of asafetida is attractive to the wolf, a matter of common knowledge, he says, along the Texas-Mexican border.
It is used as scent bait for catfish and pike.
Asafoetida also aborts babies and prevents epilepsy!

I'll be a Suck Egg Mule

[–] kennelman 16 years ago

I've often wondered about those potion ingredients!

BTW Asafoetida is on sale in Tesco's (UK supermarket) and I bought some entirely because of curiosity after seeing El Dorado. It reeks! and it was an act of pure faith that I tried cooking with some as it said on the packet its flavour becomes similar to Onions.

Remarkably it did and the resulting dish was quite edible. The raw stuff stank so much though - like a dead rat mainly - I chucked it out soon after.

[–] Brian-Albin 16 years ago

"like a dead rat mainly"

Ha Ha Ha!

[–] CmdrCody 16 years ago

Brian...you forgot to add the gunpowder. Then you've got your good flavor.

[–] Brian-Albin 16 years ago

Ha! That's true. I left out an important ingredient.
I once dropped in the sand the patch driver that fits on the end of the ram rod of a muzzle loading rifle. I did not trust to wiping it on a cloth to remove all the grit, so without thinking I plopped it into my mouth - only thinking about the sand on it, not the burnt powder from who knows how many swabs. Blech! That may be the most awful flavor I have ever tasted! Well, next to pickled beets of course.

[–] CmdrCody 16 years ago

Brian-Albin: Are you sure that Johnny Diamond wasn't an embalmer ?

[–] Brian-Albin 16 years ago

This movie has a lot of funny lines!

You know, I never hear it said that John Wayne was a comic actor. But I found him to be one of the funniest. More especially in his pictures during the 1950s.

[–] CmdrCody 16 years ago

John Ford movies afforded funny lines for the Duke. He had a few in "They Were Expendable" and, of course, in the comedy "Donovan's Reef."

Also, two westerns come to mind where he was funny. "The Comancheros" and "The Shootist" were full of funny interplay. Also, "The Sons of Katie Elder." OOOPS...that's three westerns !

CmdrCody

[–] msgreen-53599 8 years ago

It's not strictly a Western, but "North to Alaska" was filled with comedy. Another great movie in my opinion.

[–] tv_misfit 16 years ago

I've got a friend who needs to drink 12 to 16 ounces of the stuff every day. ... kh

[–] WarEagle-3 12 years ago

If you remember, when Mississippi pored the Asafoetida into the pot, he and Cole leaned away from the bottle and the pot. The director or someone on the set must have told them to do this as they must have known that it stank.

[–] jd-276 10 years ago

Anyone tried it?

[–] 0DegreesKelvin 10 years ago

There's also cayenne pepper and hot mustard. Could you imagine taking this stuff and having the croton oil give you diarrhea, then what the cayenne and hot mustard would do to your sphincter? They might set off the gunpowder, too. You'd become a human rocket.

[–] indy_go_blue44 8 years ago

There's also cayenne pepper and hot mustard. Could you imagine taking this stuff and having the croton oil give you diarrhea, then what the cayenne and hot mustard would do to your sphincter? They might set off the gunpowder, too. You'd become a human rocket.

My wife is laughing her butt off on this one because I make a homemade red sauce (cayenne is just a part of it) with habanero and a few other things that'll do just that. I think I'll bypass the gunpowder though; that just might happen!

[–] Bilwick1 7 years ago

I tried mixing up and ingesting that formula, just for the sake of scientific inquiry. As Burt says in an episode of RAISING HOPE, "I just pooped out cereal they stopped making in 1978."

It was great.