← The ApothecaryConvolvulaceaetuberous rootFact-checked 24 October 2026

Significant riskA drastic purgative. A 2017 review of toxic North American plants reports traditional use at 2 g of root per litre per day, and that people who take more, believing more works better, suffer vomiting and abdominal pain. Related roots sold as substitutes have their own toxicity: Ipomoea stans root is reported as neurotoxic.In an emergency, call your local emergency number or poison centre.

Jalap

Ipomoea purga

Also calledRaíz de Jalapa (Spanish, Mexico) · Jalapae tuber (pharmacy name) · Officinal jalap

A Mexican morning glory whose tuberous root, named after the Xalapa region of Mexico, is a pre-Hispanic purgative that became one of the most traded medicines of the 18th-century world. Its resin glycosides provoke strong bowel contractions. It is still sold by Mexican herbalists as a laxative, but there are no modern clinical trials, and overdoses cause vomiting and abdominal pain.

What it is used for

Constipation
Traditional
A pre-Hispanic Mexican purgative still used as a laxative and found in over-the-counter products sold by herbalists in Mexico; its resin glycosides cause purging, but no clinical trials were found.^1,2,3

Safety

Pregnancy: Insufficient data
Breastfeeding: Insufficient data
Children: Not for home use as a purgative.

Side effects

Vomiting and abdominal pain, especially above the traditional dose

In the healing traditions

Mesoamerican
Raíz de Jalapa
Pre-Hispanic purgative root, one of a complex of Mexican morning-glory roots used to move the bowels; still sold by herbalists in contemporary Mexico.
As reviewed by Pereda-Miranda and colleagues
Western herbalism
Jalap root
Adopted in Europe from the 16th century as a purgative within humoral medicine, which treated illness by drawing off humours through bleeding, purging and vomiting. By the late 18th century it was a basic supply of European pharmacies and of naval and plantation medicine chests, alongside cinchona and ipecacuanha.

Active compounds

resin glycosides (jalapin type): ether-soluble glycoresins that stimulate peristalsis in the small intestine; the purgative principle
purgic acids A and B: hexasaccharide glycosidic acids that distinguish authentic jalap from false jalaps
jalapinoside and purgins: resin glycosides that reversed multidrug resistance in cancer cells in the laboratory

History

Colonists renamed the purgative root 'jalap' after the region of Xalapa where it was abundant. Spain imported about 5 tonnes a year around 1700; by 1802 New Spain exported 134 tonnes, and jalap travelled on Manila galleons to Asia, to Jesuit pharmacies in Goa and Macau, and to the markets of Istanbul and Smyrna. A 1742 inventory of a village barber-surgeon in Lower Saxony already lists it.

Sources

Reference, not prescription. Nothing here is medical advice. Herbs can interact with medicines and be dangerous in pregnancy; tell your doctor or pharmacist about anything you take.