Jimsonweed

Description

Jimsonweed is one to five feet high, and has egg-shaped, pointed, coarsely toothed leaves that are two to eight inches long.  Its white, violet or lavender funnel-shaped flowers are about two and a half to four inches long.  Its fruit is a spiny pod, about two inches long, which is why it is commonly called thornapple.  It can be seen from summer to fall (Newcomb 1977).

History

The name “Jimson weed” is a contraction of “Jamestown weed”; many soldiers and settlers in Jamestown were poisoned after eating its leaves. The effects of jimsonweed on the central nervous system have been exploited medicinally, recreationally and criminally. Long ago in India and Russia, ground-up seeds were mixed with water and used by thieves to daze victims before robbing them. The herb causes sedation, lack of will, and amnesia, so that victims were cooperative without being asleep. The Thugs, who belonged to an ancient Indian religious organization that worshiped Kali, the goddess of destruction, used the same mixture to rob and murder people (LeStrange 1977). The generic name Datura comes from dhat, the Indian term for this poison. In Europe, thornapple seeds were well-known during the Renaissance as a poison (LeStrange 1977).

In ancient times, the priests of Apollo at Delphi ingested small doses of jimsomweed leaves in order to inspire them when making prophecies (LeStrange 1977).

In China, jimsomweed was prescribed for diseases of the feet, and for its sedative effects (LeStrange 1977).  Jimsonweed has also been used in China for flatulence, hyperacidity, and night sweats caused by tuberculosis (Duke 1997). Asians also used the leaves as a painkiller, a decoction for skin problems, and a powder as an inhalant for respiratory problems.  In India, seeds were prescribed to relieve epilepsy and heart disease (LeStrange 1977).The dried leaves have been used in cigarettes as a treatment for asthma and bronchial complaints (Duke 2001). Datura extracts have also been added to bronchial medications (LeStrange 1977).  In Europe, the dried leaves were as a treatment for asthma and cough (the anticholinergics in thornapple would be expected to have a beneficial effect on asthma – see current medicinal uses). The treatment was occasionally fatal (LeStrange 1977).

Mexican Indians ingested a leaf decoction to relieve childbirth pains (later, scopolamine was used for this purpose – see current medicinal use).

In Europe, thornapple seeds and extracts were used to treat mania, seizures, melancholy, rheumatism, and madness (Lewis 1977). Thornapple was also prescribed as an anodyne (painkiller), an antispasmodic, and to treat seizures, delirium tremens, neuralgia, and rheumatism (LeStrange 1977).

In Britain, an ointment made of thornapple juice boiled in lard was used to treat inflammation and burns (LeStrange 1977).The juice from the fruit has been used in an effort to prevent hair loss, while the juice from the flowers was used for earache. A leaf poultice of jimsonweed leaves has been used to treat cancer. Costa Ricans gargle a concoction for sore throat (Duke 2001).

Current Medicinal Uses

All parts of the thornapple contain tropane alkaloids, the active compounds, but only the leaves and seeds have been recognized officially as drugs in pharmacopoeias (Grieve 1998). Thornapple contains scopolamine (also called hyoscine), (-) hyoscyamine, and atropine (± hyoscyamine), the racemic form of hyoscyamine); the leaf contains 0.2-0.45% of these anticholinergic alkaloids (Dewick 1997).

Scopolamine and hyoscyamine have been widely used in medicine; they have antispasmodic effects on the gastrointestinal tract, antisecretory effects that have been used to control salivary salivation during surgery, and mydriatic effects (causing dilation of the pupils) that facilitate ophthalmic exams. Scopolamine is a central nervous system depressant used as a sedative; until the 1950s it was used to induce “twilight sleep” and amnesia in women undergoing childbirth. Scopolamine is currently used as an antimotion sickness agent (it is usually administered as a transdermal patch, which causes less dry mouth than oral administration) (Dewick 1997).  Atropine is also used as an antidote to poisoning caused by cholinesterase inhibitors or organophosphate insecticides.

Jimsonweed has been suggested as an antidote in case of a bioterrorism attack using nerve-paralyzing agents. An experiment in mice found that pretreatment with a datura seed infusion increased survival in mice exposed to organophosphates (Bania 2004). 100 seeds contain approximately 6 mg of atropine.

Adverse Effects

Jimsonweed is poisonous. Datura has been used as a recreational drug but is very dangerous; fatalities have been reported (Boumba 2004).

Jimsonweed poisoning may cause tachycardia, dry mouth, dilated pupils, blurred vision, hallucinations, confusion, combative behavior, and difficulty urinating. Later signs include coma and seizures, although death is rare. Poisonings are treated with activated charcoal and gastric lavage; beta-blockers may be employed for severe sinus tachycardia (Dewitt 1997). Physostigmine, an anticholinesterase inhibitor, may be used to treat severe symptoms such as life-threatening arrhythmias. However, an analysis of jimsonweed poisonings (which found that poisoning occurred with ingestion of as few as seven seeds) concluded that neither nasogastric recovery of seeds nor use of physostigmine decreased the need for intensive care. Neither intervention shortened hospital stay (Salen 2003).

References

Bania TC, Chu J, Bailes D, O'Neill M.  Jimson weed extract as a protective agent in severe organophosphate toxicity. Acad Emerg Med. 2004 Apr;11(4):335-8.

Boumba VA, Mitselou A, Vougiouklakis T.  Fatal poisoning from ingestion of Datura stramonium seeds.Vet Hum Toxicol. 2004 Apr;46(2):81-2.

Dewick  PM. Medicinal natural products: a biosynthetic approach. John Wiley and Sons, Chichester, 1997:274-278.

Dewitt MS, Swain R, Gibson LB Jr.  The dangers of jimson weed and its abuse by teenagers in the Kanawha Valley ofWest Virginia. W V Med J. 1997 Jul-Aug;93(4):182-5.

Duke JA. Handbook of Medicinal Herbs. CRC Press, Boca Raton, 2001. (pp. 161-162)

Foster S, Duke JA. Eastern/Central Medicinal Plants. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1990. (p. 20)

Grieve M. A Modern Herbal. Tiger Books International, London, 1998 (first published in 1931 by Jonathan Cape Ltd):804-805.

Le Strange, R. A History of Herbal Plants. Arco Publishing Company, Inc., New York, 1977. (pp. 99-100)

Lewis WH , Elvin-Lewis MPF. Medical Botany: Plants Affecting Man’s Health. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1977. (pp. 167, 296, 300)

Newcomb L. Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide. Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1977. (p. 214)

Salen P, Shih R, Sierzenski P, Reed J.   Effect of physostigmine and gastric lavage in a Datura stramonium-induced anticholinergic poisoning epidemic. Am J Emerg Med. 2003 Jul;21(4):316-7.

Disclaimer 

Information on this website is for educational purposes only. Many herbs historically used for medicine are considered too toxic to use today; some of these herbs have caused deaths. Do not ingest these herbs based on information on this website. We have not provided sufficient information for the safe medicinal use of any of these herbs, nor sufficient information for treatment of poisoning. All recreational use of these herbs is dangerous.