Ya Dan Zi

Ya Dan Zi is the ripe dried fruit of Brucea javanica (L.) Merr. (Simaroubaceae), a small evergreen shrub or small tree 1 to 3 m tall of southern China, Taiwan, and tropical Southeast Asia. The plant bears pinnately compound leaves with serrate ovate-lanceolate leaflets and dense panicles of tiny purple-green dioecious flowers that develop into ovoid drupes about 6 to 10 mm long, black-brown when ripe with a thin brittle pericarp enclosing a single oily kernel. WARNING: The fruit is bitter and toxic owing to quassinoids including brusatol and bruceines, which are gastrointestinal irritants. In traditional Chinese medicine it is bitter and cold with toxicity, entering the Large Intestine and Liver channels; it clears heat, dries dampness, kills parasites, and stops dysentery, and is the principal classical drug for amebic dysentery and malaria. The oil is used topically for warts and corns.