 |
| From-pixabay |
Kingdom:Plantae
Class:Tracheophyta
Order:Solanales
Family:Solanaceae
Genus:Datura
Species:D. stramonium
Datura stramonium is a species of flowering plant in the nightshade family Solanaceae. It is also known by the common names thorn apple, jimsonweed (jimson weed), devil's snare, and devil's trumpet. It was probably first brought to many parts of the world from Central America. In temperate climes all across the world, it is an invasive weed that spreads quickly. Traditional medicine has frequently used D. stramonium to treat a range of illnesses. It has also been employed entheogenically to produce potent, sacramental, or esoteric visions as a hallucinogen (of the anticholinergic/antimuscarinic, deliriant variety).Due to effects on the mind and body that are frequently subjectively rated as being extremely unpleasant and which result in a state of profound and prolonged disorientation or delirium (anticholinergic syndrome) with a potentially fatal outcome, it is unlikely to ever become a significant drug of abuse. It includes tropane alkaloids, which may be quite dangerous and are what give it its psychedelic properties.
Description
The herb known as Datura stramonium is an upright, annual, freely branched plant that grows to a height of 60 to 150 cm (2 to 5 feet).
The root is whitish, long, thick, and fibrous. The stem is thick, upright, leafy, smooth, and ranging in colour from pale yellow-green to reddish purple. The stem continually splits into branches, and at each fork, a leaf and a solitary, upright flower are formed.
The leaves are irregularly undulating, smooth, toothed, and 8–20 cm (3–8 in) long.
The bottom of the leaves are bright green, and the top is a darker green. The bitter, sickening flavour of the leaves permeates herb extracts and lingers even after the leaves have been dried.Datura stramonium typically blooms all summer long. The trumpet-shaped, fragrant flowers have a pleasant aroma, measure 6 to 9 cm (2+12-3+12 in) in length, range in colour from white to creamy to violet, and sprout from the leaf axils or the points where the branches fork on short stems. The calyx is long and tubular, swollen at the base, sharply angular, and has five pointed teeth on top. The corolla is white, funnel-shaped, with pronounced ribs, folded, and only partially open. The flowers bloom at night, giving out a lovely scent that nocturnal moths eat.The 3 to 8 cm (1-3 in) in diameter, egg-shaped seed capsule is either bald or spine-covered. When fully grown, it divides into four chambers, each containing a large number of tiny, black seeds.
Cultivation
Datura stramonium favours calcareous, rich soil. The amount of alkaloids contained in the plant is increased when nitrogen fertiliser is added to the soil. From seed, which should be sown with space between plants of at least a foot, D. stramonium can be grown. It has to be protected from the cold because it is susceptible to frost. When the fruits are mature but still green, the plant is harvested. The entire plant is chopped down, its leaves are removed, and then everything is allowed to dry before being harvested.The seeds are collected when the fruits start to open up. In intensive plantations, seed yields of 780 kg/ha (700 lb/acre) and leaf yields of 1,100 to 1,700 kg/ha (1,000 to 1,500 lb/acre) are both feasible.
Range and habitat
Datura stramonium is a native of North America, but it was widely dispersed in the Old World before becoming naturalised there. Although it had been described by botanists like Nicholas Culpeper a century earlier, it was officially defined and given its name by Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in 1753. It now grows wild over the entire world's warm and temperate zones, where it can be found by the sides of the road and in dung-filled animal enclosures. It grows as a weed in landfills and wastelands across Europe and is poisonous to animals who consume it. It is commonly referred to in South Africa by the Afrikaans name malpitte ("evil seeds").The seed is believed to be distributed by birds and their droppings, according to observation. Years can pass while its seeds remain dormant underground until sprouting when the earth is disturbed. Worried gardeners are advised by the Royal Horticultural Society to dig it up or have it removed in another way while using gloves to handle it.
Etymology and common names
Datura stramonium is known by a variety of common names, including thornapple, moon flower, hell's bells, devil's trumpet, devil's weed, tolguacha, Jamestown weed, stinkweed, locoweed, pricklyburr, false castor oil plant, and devil's cucumber, depending on the locale.
The plant's Hindi name, dhatra, which ultimately derives from the Sanskrit dhattra, or "white thorn-apple," is whence the genus name originates. Neo-Latin stramonium's etymology is unknown, however in the 17th century, several species of Datura went by the name Stramonia.
The name "jimsonweed" or, less frequently, "Jamestown weed" is used to refer to the plant in the United States. These names come from Jamestown, Virginia, where English soldiers consumed the plant while trying to put down Bacon's Rebellion.
Toxicity
The tropane alkaloids atropine, hyoscyamine, and scopolamine, which are categorised as deliriants or anticholinergics, are present in lethal amounts in all portions of Datura plants. Uninformed users run a high danger of deadly overdose, and recreational users who consume the herb for its euphoric properties frequently end up in hospitals. There have been cases of intentional or unintentional poisoning brought on by smoking jimsonweed and other species that are similar.From plant to plant, the amount of poisons varies significantly. There can be a 5:1 range in toxicity amongst plants, and the location, age, and weather where a plant is growing all affect how hazardous it is. Additionally, the concentration of toxins differs inside a single plant depending on the section, even from leaf to leaf. The ratio of scopolamine to atropine is roughly 3:1 when the plant is young; after flowering, this ratio is reversed, with the amount of scopolamine gradually declining as the plant ages. To limit injury in traditional cultures, extensive experience with and knowledge of Datura were necessary.The approximate lethal dose of atropine for an adult human is >10 mg atropine or >2-4 mg scopolamine, and one seed has roughly 0.1 mg of it.The typical side effects of datura intoxication include delirium, hallucinations, heat, tachycardia, odd behaviour, urine retention, and severe mydriasis with a painful photophobia that can continue for several days.Amnesia that is audible is another frequently mentioned side effect.
Typically, 30 to 60 minutes after eating the plant, symptoms start to appear. Although it has been noted that these symptoms can occasionally continue up to two weeks, they typically endure between 24 and 48 hours.Similar to previous instances of anticholinergic poisoning, intravenous physostigmine can be used as an antidote in severe cases.
Uses
Traditional medicine
Atropine, which has been used traditionally in medicine and recreationally for millennia, is one of the main active ingredients in datura. The leaves are typically smoked in a pipe or a cigarette. The method was made more well-known in Europe by James Anderson, the English Physician General of the East India Company, in the late 18th century. It was additionally employed by the Chinese as a surgical anaesthetic.
Early medicine
According to William Lewis, the juice may be used as "a very strong treatment in different convulsive and spasmodic illnesses, epilepsy, and mania," and it was also "discovered to offer alleviation in external inflammations and haemorrhoids," according to Lewis, who wrote this in the late 18th century.William Lewis FRS was a British physician and chemist. He is well-known for his writings on pharmacy and medicine, as well as his metal research.
In the treatment of respiratory illnesses
In his 19th-century book On Asthma: its Pathology and Treatment, Henry Hyde Salter discusses D. stramonium as a treatment for asthma.Smoking herbs, including D. stramonium, has been recognised by physicians as a temporary relief to asthmatics since antiquity and into the early twentieth century.Following new understandings of asthma as an allergic inflammatory reaction, and developments in pharmacology that provided a variety of new, immediately more effective treatments for asthma, the mainstream medical use of smoking D. stramonium to treat asthma would later wane in popularity.Muscarinic antagonists, such as atropine, and synthetic tropane derivatives selective for muscarinic acetylcholine receptor subtypes, such as ipratropium bromide and tiotropium bromide, are used to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma.
Occultism and spiritualism
Indigenous peoples throughout the Americas, including the Algonquians, Aztecs, Navajo, Cherokee, Luiseo, and the indigenous peoples of Marie-Galante, used this plant or a similar species in sacred ceremonies due to its hallucinogenic properties. D. stramonium is used by some students and debtrawoch (lay priests) in Ethiopia to "open the mind" to be more receptive to learning and creative and imaginative thinking.
The common name "datura" has its roots in India, where Datura metel, a sister species, is revered and thought to be Shiva's favourite in Shaivism. Some sadhus and charnel ground ascetics, like the Aghori, are said to have used Datura stramonium and D. metel as an entheogen and an ordeal poison. It has occasionally been purposely combined with cannabis and extremely toxic herbs like Aconitum ferox to produce dysphoric effects. These herbs were employed by them to attain spiritual emancipation (moksha) in environments of severe terror and agony.
Jimson weed has a reputation for its mystical usage in numerous societies throughout history in addition to its holy and visionary functions. Wade Davis named D. stramonium, also known as "zombi cucumber" in Haiti, as a key component of the mixture vodou priests use to produce zombies in his book The Serpent and the Rainbow. It has been reported, though, that bokors rather than vodou priests of the loa carry out the zombification process. Along with other toxic plants from the nightshade family, D. stramonium was a popular ingredient in witches' flying ointment used in European witchcraft.The hallucinatory effects of magical or lycanthropic salves and potions were frequently caused by it. Growing the plant in one's garden was frequently regarded as unlucky or unsuitable during the witch-phobia frenzy of the Early Modern era in England and parts of the colonial Northeastern U.S. because it was thought to be a tool for incantations.
Reactions
0 Comments