Botanical Name

Datura metel L.

Family

Solanaceae.

Synonyms

Brugmansia waymanii Paxton, Datura aegyptiaca Vis. Datura alba F.Muell. Datura bojeri Delile, Datura chlorantha Hook., Datura fastuosa L. Datura muricata Link, Datura nigra Hassk., Datura nilhummatu Dunal, Datura waymanii (Paxton) Steud.

Regional Name

English : Thorn apple, Devil’s trumpwet, Hindi : Datura, Dhatura, Dhaturi, Sanskrit : Sveta-dhaturah, Kanakahvya, Urdu : Dhattura, Kannada : Dattura, Dhattura, Dhusturi, Duttura, Ummatta, Ummatti, Unmatta, Malayalam : Hummatu, Ummam, Ummata, Marathi : Dhattura, Gujarati : Dhattura, Tamil : Matulam, Umathai, Umattai, Telugu : Duthooramu, Ummattha, Bengali : Dhattura.

Part Used

Seeds, Whole Plant.

Description

It is annual coarse herbs, minutely pubescent, growing upto 1.5 m high. Leaves 15-20 cm long, ovate, acute, entire or with few large teeth or lobes. Flowers solitary, calyx 7.5 cm long, tubular, corolla about twice as long as the calyx, tubular, widend at the mouth, purple or white, often double. Capsules sub globose, nodding, covered all over with numerous, straight, sharp prickles. Seeds are compressed, rugose, brown.

Phytoconstituents

The main constituents of the plant are a large number of tropane alkaloids including hyoscyamine, hyoscine, littorine, acetoxytropine, valtropine, fastusine, fastusinine, a number of withanolides and various esters of tropine and pseudotropine. Seeds contains β-sitosterol, triterpene, Scopolamine, dhaturine, daturadiol, daturanolone, daturalone, factusine, hyoscyamine. Leaves also contains atropine, niacin, vitamin C. Root contains hyosine, atropine, apophyoscine, norhyoscine, meteloidine, noratropine, tropine, pseudotropine.

Ayurvedic Properties

Rasa : Tikta, Katu, Kashaya, Guna : Laghu, Ruksha, Tiksna, Virya : Ushna, Vipaka : Katu.

Ayurvedic Applications

Vishagana, Kasahara, Jawarahara, Jwara, Sotha, Atisara, Kustha, Kushtapra, Maduka, Varunya, Krimigra, Vatakaraka.

Medicinal Uses

It is used for skin diseases, ulcer, scabies, pruritus and fever. The plant as a whole has narcotic, anodyne and antispasmodic properties. Leaves are used as a local application for rheumatic swellings of the joints, lumbago, sciatica, neuralgia, painful tumours and glandular inflammations, such as mumps; used externally for earache and smoked to relieve spasmodic asthma. Seeds are used externally for piles. Seeds, leaves and roots are used in insanity, fever with catarrh, diarrhoea, skin diseases and cerebral complications.