Toktok-kalo
Cerbera odollam · Pong-pong
- Names in the book
- Toktok-kaló, Tag.
- Colours
- flowerwhitecentreyellowfruitgreen
- Native range
- Southern India and Southeast Asia
- In the Philippines, per the book
- Luzon. Blooms in July.
- Family
- Apocynaceae, filed in the book under Apocynaceæ
- Printed as
- Cerbera Odallam, Gaertn. (C. manghas, Bl. & Blanco.)
- Sources
- Page 161 on Project Gutenberg · Wikipedia
The plant today
Cerbera odollam is a tree species in the family Apocynaceae commonly known as the suicide tree or pong-pong. It bears a fruit known as othalanga whose seeds yield a potent poison called cerberin. It has historically been used in trials by ordeal, especially in Madagascar, where it has caused thousands of deaths annually, and continues to be used for suicide, particularly in Kerala, India. It can cause fatal heart arrhythmias with just one kernel and is responsible for numerous poisonings due to its easily masked taste and limited testing.
Excerpt from “Cerbera odollam” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Recorded in the Philippines
GBIF holds 13 records of this plant from the Philippines. The ones with map coordinates fall in 3 provinces: Davao del Sur (1), Palawan (1), Romblon (1).
Counts from GBIF occurrence records, October 2026. They include planted trees and garden plants, and a province with no records may only lack collectors.
What the 1901 book says
A historical record, quoted as printed. Doses and remedies here are not medical advice.
Uses
The milky juice of the plant is emetic and purgative. The chemist De Vry has isolated from it a poisonous alkaloid analogous to “thevetin,” which has just been considered. The seeds are likewise emetic and toxic. The Javanese call the fruit “bimaro” and affirm that it possesses the same properties as “datura.” The bruised leaves are used locally for hepatic eruptions; the bark is used for the same purpose and is purgative.
The use of the plant is dangerous and is condemned by the Pharmacopœia of India.
Botanical description
A small shrub with forked branches. Leaves (overlapping) at ends of branches, lanceolate, entire, glabrous. Flowers in umbellate spikes. Calyx, 5 caducous lobules. Corolla white, twisted, cylindrical, with salver-shaped limb divided in 5 rhomboid lobes, throat stellate and woolly. Stamens 5. Filaments joined to the corolla, their ends thickened. Anthers arrow-shaped. Ovary, 2 uniovulate locules. Style, same length as stamens. Stigma thick, conical, lobulate. Two drupes joined at the base (one usually aborted), brown, large, oval, fleshy, with woody fibrous nut of a single flattened seed.
Recent research
The most cited papers since 2022 that name this plant in the title, pulled from Europe PMC in October 2026. Titles are the authors' own and the findings have not been reviewed here.
- Bintaro (Cerbera odollam and Cerbera manghas): an overview of its eco-friendly use, pharmacology, and toxicology
- Cerbera odollam fruit extracts enhance anti-cancer activity of sorafenib in HCT116 and HepG2 cells
- Development of an LC-MS/MS detection method for cardiac glycosides (cerberin, neriifolin, and tanghinin) in human blood serum: Application to a Cerbera odollam poisoning case