Stramonium leaf

The British Pharmacopoeia (1932) recognises three of these solanaceous drugs and specifies for them minimum requirements per cent, of total alkaloids, calculated as hyoscyamine, viz. belladonna, leaves 0-3, root 0-4 henbane, leaves and flowering tops 0-05 stramonium, leaves and flowering tops 0-25. The United States Pharmacopoeia, XIII, specifies the same minimum limits for belladonna leaves and stramonium and for henbane, 0-04. 

Nepal. Decoction of the leaf is taken orally by adults as an anthelmintic" """. The powdered leaf is mixed with cattle feed as a treatment for diarrhea " " . For headache, the dried leaves are ground with Datura stramonium leaves and Picrorhiza schrophu lariflora stem and water then applied externally" " ". The leaf juice is used externally as an antiseptic, as a hemostat on cuts and wounds, and to treat swelling of sprained joints" "". The seeds are crushed, mixed with curd, and taken orally for dysentery" """. Decoction of the seed is taken orally as an anthelmintic" ". To aid in parturition, 2 teaspoonfuls of powdered seeds... 

Stramonium Leaves Datura stramonium Asia and Tropical America... 

Belladonnae Folia, Belladonna leaves, ovate and tapering, brownish-green above, grayish-green below, with a slight odor and bitter, disagreeable taste. Stramonium leaves are more wrinkled hyoscyamus leaves are more hairy. 

Bronchodilation is another property of belladonna alkaloids of potential usefulness. Due to relaxation of the smooth musculature of bronchial passageways, this effect has found applications in asthma and other pulmonary obstructive conditions. At one time the smoking of cigarettes made of stramonium leaves was popular. More recently, atropine, quater-nized with isopropyl bromide (Ipratropium, Fig. 8-13) has been introduced as an aerosol for inhalation. This renewed interest in antimuscarinics resulted in part from clarifications of the role of the parasympathetic system in bronchial obstructions. The availability of a potent agent such as atropine in a poorly absorbed form (i.e., quatemized) would minimize systemic effects following inhalation. Ipratropium bromide does not cross the BBB. It is longer acting and more bronchoselective than atropine methylbromide and exhibits no CNS effects. 

Figure 1 Asthma cigarettes containing shredded stramonium leaves.

STRAMONIUM LEAF, Stramonii folium is the dried leaf of Datura stramonium X., family Solanaceae, with violet flowers and spiny capsule. Originally from Central America it is now spread globally in warm regions. The alkaloid content is 0.2-0.6%, with L-hyoscyamine and L-scopolamine found in the ratio 2 1 in mature plants. 

Stramonium leaf contains up to 0 5 per cent of alkaloids, but the B.P requirement of 0-25 per cent is rather high, much of the normal leaf contains somewhat less, 0 20 to 0-22 per cent. It is assayed as for Belladonna Herb (see p. 107). 

A racemic mixture of hyoscyamine, the principal tropane alkaloid of Belladonna herb (Atropa belladonna), henbane (Hyoscyamus niger) or stramonium leaf (Datura stramonium) used in medicine when temporary reversible muscarinic blockade is needed, for example, to overcome bradycardia, as an antidote for overdose of cholinergic drugs or cholinesterase poisoning. 

Datura alba Nees. D. fastuosa L. var. alba Clark D. innoxia Mill. D. metel L. D. stramonium L. D. talula L. Man Tu Luo (Jimsonweed) (leaf, seed, flower) Scopolamine, hyoscyamine, daturodiol, daturolone, hyoscine.33-144 450 This herb is toxic. Spasmolytic, analgesic, antiasthmatic, antirheumatic agent. A general anesthetic for major operations. 

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