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Botany
· Coarse,
erect, branched, smooth or slightly hairy shrub or short-lived
shrub, 0.5 to 2 m high.
· Leaves: single, ovate to oblong-ovate, 9 to 18 cm long,
with inequilateral base, pointed tip and irregularly and shallowly
lobed margins.
· Flowers: ovary large, white or nearly purple, axillary
and solitary. Calyx green, about 6 cm long, cleft at the apex
and divided into linear teeth, cylindric. Corolla white, about
15 cm long and the mouth about 8 cm in diameter, trumpet-shaped
when fully opened. Stamens 5, stigma 2-fid.
· Fruits: rounded capsules, green, about 3.5 cm in diameter
and covered with stout, short spines, dehiscing at the apex when
ripe forming an irregular suture.
· Seeds numerous, closely packed, nearly smooth and brown.
Distribution
Found in open wastelands
throughout the settled areas in the Philippines
Also, cultivated also for ornamental purposes.
Parts
utilized
Leaves, seeds and
flowers.
Collect newly opened flowers and sun-dry.
Constituents
and properties
• Flowers -
Scopolamine, 0.5%; hyoscyamine, 0.04%; atropine, 0.01%.
• Leaves: Total alkaloid content is 0.426$, mainly as atropine
and small amount of hyoscyamine.
• Seeds contain 0.426% alkaloid, mainly hyoscyamine.
• Roots: contain 0.35% hyoscyamine.
• Considered anesthetic, antiasthmatic, antispasmodic,
antitussive, hallucinogenic, hypnotic.
Drug Characteristics
and Pharmacological Effects
Bitter tasting.
Antitussive, antiasthmatic and analgesic.
Plant as a whole has narcotic and antispasmodic properties.
For asthma, leaves and seeds are smoked like cigarettes.
The powdered seeds are used for cold symptoms and for excessive sneezing
associated with hay fever.
Seeds pounded in oil are used as embrocation in rheumatism.
Uses
Folkloric
· Asthma: get
drug materials, cut into slices and mix with equal quantity of tobacco
and roll into a cigarette and smoke 2 to 3 times a day.
· Muscle pains and cramps due to rheumatism: get drug, boil and
obtain a concentrated decoction. Wash the painful parts with the warm
decoction.
· Gastric pain: use 0.3 gm of dried material in decoction.
· Sprains, contusions, snakebites, piles: use pounded fresh leaves
and apply over afflicted areas.
· Severe cold accompanied by excessive sneezing similar to hay
fever symptoms: use powdered seeds (0.1 gm) in pills or loose.
· Rheumatism: use pounded seeds prepared into an oil embrocation.
· Psoriasis: use the oil prepared by boiling Datura seeds with
sesame (linga) oil in an alkaline water made from ashes of gabi. For
the preparation of the alkaline water, simply dissolve the white ashes
of gabi in water.
• In India, used
for hysteria, insanity, diarrhea, asthma, skin diseases. For epilepsy,
seeds of ripe fruit are burned and the smoke inhaled. Seeds used in
small doses as analgesic.
• In China, used
for asthma; the dried leaves are rolled and smoked like a cigar.
Others
· Used as a
ritualistic herb for its hallucinogenic effects.
Toxicity !
• All parts contain tropanic alkaloids
in varying concentrations; mostly parasympatholytic.
• Common side effects: tachycardia (fast heart beat), slight increase
in blood pressure, dryness of the mouth and eyes, sedation.
• At toxic levels, tropanic alkaloids can cause hallucinations,
delirum, mental confusion, coma and death.
• Excess ive doses can cause hallucinations, severe intoxication
and death. The window of toxic and medicinal dose is quite small.
Studies
• Hypoglycemic
/ Antihyperglycemic: Study of seed powder of DM produced
significant dose-dependent reduction of blood glucose
• Cytotoxic Withanolides:
Study on methanol extract of flowers of DM isolated 10 new withanolides
with seven known withanolides. Compounds 1,3,4 and 6 exhibited cytotoxic
activities against lung, gastric and leukemia cancer cell lines.
• Antimycotic: (1) Study showed the chloroform fraction of Datura metel to be endowed with antifungal activity against all three species of Aspergillus, i.e., A fumigatus, A flavus and A niger. However, the cytotoxicity of the chloroform fraction was less than amphotericin B. (2) Study of root and shoot extracts showed significant suppression of growth of the target fungal pathogen, Ascochyta rabiei, the cause of chickpea blight disease.
• Herbicidal Activity: Study showed the root and shoot extracts of Datura metel contain herbicidal constituents. The extracts exhibited activity againszt Phalaris minor Retz., one of the most problematic weeds of wheat in Pakistan.
• Toxicity Studies: Suspensions of powdered leaf of Datura metel and D stramonium on virgin female albino mice showed dose dependent reversible and irreversible changes. Generally, D metel-treated mice showed less anatomical abnormalities than D stramonium-treated mice and suggests D metel could serve as a substitute for D stramonium in drug development.
• Antibacterial / Alkaloid: A new antibacterial agent was isolated from Datura metel leaves with activity against S aureus, P aeruginosa, P mirabilis, S typhi, B subtilis and K pneumonia. Results support its use in phytomedicine for the treatment of asthma, cough, burns and wound healing in Nigeria.
Availability
Wild-crafted.
Seeds in the cybermarket. |
