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Botanical Name |
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Datura stramonium L. |
English
Name |
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Jimsonweed, Thornapple, Devil's Apple, Jamestown-weed, Stramonium, Stinkweed, Devil's Trumpet and Apple of Peru |
Synonym(s) |
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Datura stramonium var. tatula (Linn.) |
Family |
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Solanaceae |
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General Info
| Description |
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It is an erect, coarse and glabrous or farinose-puberulous annual herb about 60 to 120 cm high. Leaves are stalked, 15.0 to 17.0 cm long, ovate, deeply toothed or sinuate and pale-green. Flowers are large and purplish or violet coloured. Calyx is long, tubular and herbaceous. Corolla is long and funnel-shaped with wide mouth. The stamens are attached near the base of tube. Ovary is two-or spuriously four-celled. The capsules are ellipsoid, 4.0 to 7.0 cm long and spinous. Seeds are numerous, compressed and rugose. |
| Herb Effects |
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The leaves, flowering tops and seeds are anodyne, antiasthmatic, antispasmodic, hallucinogenic, hypnotic, mydriatic and narcotic; kills insects (plant extract); antidandruff (fruit); narcotic (seed); intoxicating (which can be fatal) and sedative (young fruit); anticholinergic, cyanogenetic, expectorant, reduces fever, fumitory, fungicidal, hypnotic, poisonous. |
Chemistry
| Active Ingredients |
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Scopolamine, daturine, hyoscine, hyoscyamine, atropine, mescaline, apophyoscine, skimmianine, tropine, apoatropine, alpha and beta-belladonine and 2.6-dihydroxytropane. |
| Chemistry
of Active Ingredients |
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Pharmacology
| Medicinal Use |
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For boils and testicle enlargement (leaf); relieving pain and headaches (roasted leaves); earache (flower); asthma (inhalation of burning leaves) and other pulmonary and respiratory ailments (such as pneumonia, cough and severe chest colds); used internally in the treatment of asthma and Parkinson's disease, excess causes giddiness, dry mouth, hallucinations and coma (plant); externally, as a poultice or wash in the treatment of fistulas, abscesses wounds and severe neuralgia (plant). |
| Contraindication |
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Since this plant has toxic properties, high dosages can lead to cerebral depression, followed by a coma; it should not be used when pregnant, with prostate problems tachycardia, glaucoma and with "depressant" medications. |
| Reference |
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 Chandel et al., Biodiversity in Medicinal and Aromatic Plants in India.
Uniyal et al., Medicinal Flora of Garhwal Himalayas
Bentley and Trimen, Medicinal Plants.
Grieve M. A Modern Herbal. 1931 (www.botanical.com).
Johnson T. CRC Ethnobotany Desk Reference. |
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