Weeds thorn apple Datura stramonium

Datura stramonium Jimson weed, devil s weed, Thorn apple. Contains atropine, hyoscine, hyoscyamine. Stramonium tea and cigarettes used to be used for asthma. Dilated pupils, mania, red skin colour (dilated vessels and no sweating) thirst, tachycardia, vomiting, convulsions. 100-125 seeds lethal. Death uncommon. Datura was apparently used in India by poisoners to remove idiots from positions of high rank. 

Datura stramonium (Solanaceae, Jimson weed, thorn apple, angel s trumpet)... 

Atropine and its naturally occurring congeners are tertiary amine alkaloid esters of tropic acid (Figure 8-1). Atropine (hyoscyamine) is found in the plant Atropa belladonna, or deadly nightshade, and in Datura stramonium, also known as jimsonweed (Jamestown weed), sacred Datura, or thorn apple. Scopolamine (hyoscine) occurs in Hyoscyamus niger, or henbane, as the /(-) stereoisomer. Naturally occurring atropine is /(-)-hyoscyamine, but the compound readily racemizes, so the commercial material is racemic d,/-hyoscyamine. The /(-) isomers of both alkaloids are at least 100 times more potent than the d(+) isomers. 

The atropine series contains a number of very closely allied alkaloids of which the chief are atropine, hyoscyamine, and hyoscine (also called scopolamine). They are found in the roots and leaves of many plants of the Solanaceae, notably belladonna (Atropa belladonna), henbane (Hyoscyamus niger), the thorn apple or jimson weed (Datura stramonium), and some members of the Duboisia and Scopolia genera. These plants were used during the Middle Ages as sorcerer s drugs and have been smoked, chewed, or imbibed in the form of decoctions by primitive people for the hallucinations and frenzy they produce (Figure 14.1). 

Jimson Weed Datura stramonium (Thorn Apple)... 

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