DATURA Datura metel
Solanaceae
San: Dhustura Hin.: Kaladhatura Ben: Dhatura Mal: Ummam Kan; Dattura Tam:
Vellummattai Tel: Tellavummetta
Importance
Downy datura or thorn apple is an erect branched under shrub whose intoxicating and
narcotic properties have been made use of by man from ancient time. The plant and fruit are
spasmolytic, anticancerous and anthelmintic. Leaves and seeds are inhaled in whooping
cough, asthma and other respiratory diseases. Root, leaf and seed are febrifuge,
antidiarrhoeal, anticatarrhal and are used in insanity, cerebral complications and skin
diseases. Leaf is antitumour, antirheumatic and vermicide. Flower is antiasthamatic,
anaesthetic and is employed in swellings and eruptions on face. Fruit juice is used in earache
and seed decoction in ophthalmia. For the rheumatic swellings of joints, lumbago, sciatica
and neuralgia, warm leaf smeared with an oil is used as a bandage or sometimes the leaf is
made into a poultice and applied. The root boiled with milk is used in insanity. It is also an
ingredient in the ayurvedic preparation Kanakasva used in bronchial troubles, and the Unani
formulations “Roghan dhatura” used as a massage oil for the paralysed part. The alkaloids
of pharmaceutical interest present in the plant are hyoscyamine, hyoscine and meteloidine.
Datura is the chief commercial source of hyoscine available from natural source. Hyoscine,
in the form of hyoscine hydrobromide, is used as a pre-anaesthetic in surgery, child birth,
ophthalmology and prevention of motion sickness. It is also employed in the relief of
withdrawal symptoms in morphine and alcoholic addiction, paralysis agitans, post-
encephaletic parkinsonianism and to allay sexual excitement. Hyoscyamine and its salt
hyoscyamine sulphate and hyoscyamine hydrobromide are used in delerium, tremour, menia
and parkinsonianism (Kaul and Singh, (1995).
Distribution
Datura is distributed throughout the world, particularly the warmer regions. Datura
stramonium is indigenous to India. Out of 15 species reported from different parts of the
world, only 10 are known to occur in India. They are found commonly in wastelands,
gardens and roadsides. They are distributed in rich localities under semi-arid and arid
regions of Punjab, Haryana, Rajastan, and Gujarat; the Central Plateau of Andhra Pradesh and
Maharastra and the southern peninsular region of Tamil Nadu. Datura innoxia is indigenous
to Mexico and is distributed in Latin American countries. A wealth of genetic stock on
genotypes and varieties are maintained in several research institutes in Germany, Bulgaria,
USSR and Poland.
Botany
The genus Datura, belonging to the family solanaceae, consists of annual and
perennial herbs, shrubs and trees. Three species,viz, Datura metel Linn., D. stramonium
Linn. and D. innoxia Mill. are medicinally important. D. innoxia mill. and D. metel Linn.
(var. alba, and var, fastuosa) are the choice drug plants, rich in hyoscine. D. metel Linn. is
the most common in India. The names, D. metel Linn., D. fastuosa Linn., D. alba Nees., D.
fastuosa Linn. var. alba (Nees) C.B. Clarke and D. metel Linn. var. fastuosa (Linn.) Safford
are synonymously used by many workers. Two varieties are often noted in D. metel Linn.,
namely the white flowered var. alba and purple flowered var. fastuosa. D. metel Linn. is an
erect succulent branched undershrub divaricate often purplish branches and ovate pubescent
leaves which are oblique at the base of lamina. Flowers are large, solitary, short pedicelled,
purplish outside and white inside. Fruits are sub-globose capsules covered all over with
numerous, fleshy prickles, irregularly breaking when mature. Seeds are numerous, smooth,
yellowish brown. (warrier et al, 1994).
Agrotechnology
Datura grows well in a wide range of climate from tropical to temperate conditions.
The plant thrives best in areas of low rainfall where winter and monsoon rains are followed