a. Chem. [f. mod. L. Tigl-ium, specific name of the croton oil plant, Croton Tiglium (Linn.), of the Coromandel coast in India, the seeds of which were known in 17th-cent. pharmacy as grana tiglia and grana tilli; according to Wittstein, 1856, f. Gr. τῖλος liquid fæces, as in diarrhœa, from their purgative quality. If so, the spelling tiglia or tiglii for tilia, tilli prob. arose in Italy.] Contained in or derived from croton oil; tiglic acid, C5H8O2 (Watts) = CH3.CH:C(CH3).CO.OH, a colorless crystalline compound, crystallizing in triclinic plates or rods, obtained from croton and other oils; stereo-isomeric with angelic acid. Also called methyl-crotonic acid. So Tiglate, a salt of this acid; Tigline (see quot. 1900); Tiglinic a., tiglic.
1875. Watts, Dict. Chem., VII. 395. (Croton oil, acids obtained from) Geuther and Fröhlich designate this acid provisionally as tiglic acid, and point out that it is, perhaps, identical with Frankland and Duppa’s methyl-crotonic acid…. Barium tiglate, (C5H7O2)2 Ba + 10 H2O.
1876. Harley, Royle’s Mat. Med., 440. It is composed of the ordinary fatty acids, and volatile, acetic, butyric, and valerianic, tiglinic acid.
1900. B. D. Jackson, Gloss. Bot. Terms, Tigline, the acrid principle in the seeds of Croton Tiglium, Linn.
