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| Datura metel L. |
Datura metel, commonly known as Devil's trumpet, metel, downy thorn-apple and, along with Datura stramonium, zombie cucumber is a shrub-like annual herb with large flowers, typically white or yellow with deep purple accents. Native to China, India and South East Asia, it is now used in landscaping and gardening in North America.
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Medicinal use
D. metel is one of the 50 fundamental herbs used in traditional Chinese medicine, where it is called yáng jīn huā (洋金花). The leaves or juice of it if consumed make the person dumb (unable to speak). The dry flower, particularly the violet coloured, if rolled and used like cigar, will help to relieve the asthma or wheezing like symptoms.
Toxicity
This plant may be toxic if ingested in any quantity, symptomatically expressed as flushed skin, headaches, hallucinations, and possibly convulsions or even a coma. The principal toxic elements are tropane alkaloids. Accidentally (or intentionally) ingesting even a single leaf could lead to severe side effects.
Black daturas
A cultivar of Datura metel with a polished-looking ebony-black stem exists as a garden plant. It usually has purple flowers with more than a single layer of petals. The fruit lacks the infamous thorns. It is quite a large datura and could be mistaken for a young tree. The plant is already reported to have been naturalised in Israel (see illustration). The black cultivar might become a common roadside dweller, like its white-flowered ancestor.
See also
- Chinese herbology 50 fundamental herbs
References
External links
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- This page was last modified on 7 July 2008, at 14:17.
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