"fenwoman" wrote
It can leave a nasty burn on the skin if you get the sap on you and don't
wash it off right away.

I don't seem to react to it at, but found this at
http://www.the-tree.org.uk/Enchanted...aperspurge.htm


As so often Mrs. Grieve has some interesting information for us on this
plant, including The use of Spurge Laurel by beggars to produce sores:
"Has a milky juice of an acrid nature. Its seeds yield an abundance of fine
clear oil called oil of Euphorbia; this is obtained by expression or by the
action of alcohol or ether, and is colourless, inodorous, and almost
insipid; it rapidly becomes rancid, and acquires a dangerous acrimony. The
oil is a very violent poison, producing violent purgation and having an
irritating effect upon the mucous membrane of the intestinal canal, and
especially on the larger intestines; the oil resembles croton oil. In doses
of 5 drops it is said to be less acrid and irritating than croton oil; it
must be recently extracted. The seeds to the number of twelve or fifteen
are used by country people in France as a purgative.
The root of the plant is equally purgative and emetic; the leaves are
vesicant and are used by beggars to produce ulcers by which to excite pity;
the juice is depilatory; the seeds contain aesculin in the free state."

Jenny