This section of the book is from "The Complete Herbalist" by Dr. O. Phelps Brown. Also available from Amazon: The Complete Herbalist: The People Their Own Physicians By The Use Of Nature's Remedies.
COMMON NAMES. Thorn-Apple, Stinkweed, Apple-peru,
etc.
MEDICINAL PARTS. The leaves and seeds.
Description.--This plant is a bushy, smooth, fetid, annual plant,
two or three feet in height, and in rich soil even more. The root
is rather large, of a whitish color, giving off many fibres. The
stem is much branched, forked, spreading, leafy, of a yellowish-green color.
The leaves are large and smooth, from the forks of the stem, and are uneven
at the base. The flowers are about three inches long, erect, large,
and white. The fruit is a large, dry, prickly capsule, with four
valves and numerous black reniform seeds. There is the Datura Tatula,
or purple Stramonium, which differs from the above in having a deep purple
stem, etc.
History. -- Stramonium is a well-known poisonous
weed, growing upon waste grounds and road-sides, in all parts of the United
States. It is found in very many parts of the world. The whole
plant has a fetid, narcotic odor, which diminishes as it dries. Almost
every part of the plant is possessed of medicinal properties, but the officinal
parts are the leaves and seeds. The leaves should be gathered when
the flowers are full-blown, and carefully dried in the shade. They
impart their properties to water, alcohol, and the fixed oils. The
seeds are small, reniform, compressed, roughish, dark brown or black when
ripe, grayish-brown when unripe. They yield what is called Daturia,
which may be obtained by exhausting the bruised seeds with boiling rectified
alcohol, and then proceeding as for the active principle of other seeds
of a similar character.
Properties and Uses. -- In large doses it
is an energetic narcotic poison. The victims of this poison suffer
the most intense agonies, and die in maniacal delirium. In medicinal
doses it is an anodyne, antispasmodic, and is often used as a substitute
for opium. It is used with fair effect in cases of mania, epilepsy,
gastritis, delirium tremens, and enteritis; also in neuralgia, rheumatism,
and all periodic pains. The dried and smoked leaves are useful in
spasmodic asthma, but as there are other means much more certain to cure,
and less dangerous, I, and other herbalists, seldom or never recommend
them. Daturia is seldom employed in medicine, being a very active
and powerful poison. I should advise my readers never to employ it,
unless they be physicians; but I deemed proper to give it a place in this
work, as its medicinal qualities are quite important, if its use is intrusted
to proper and educated persons.
 
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