N. 0. SSLANAOEiE. 015 



Uses:— In Hindu medicine, the root of D. alba is boiled in 

 milk, and this milk is administered with clarified butter and 

 treacle in insanity. The seeds, leaves and roots are considered 

 useful in insanity, fever, with catarrhal and cerebral compli- 

 cations, diarrhoea, skin diseases, lice, &c. (Dutt). 



It is officinal in the Pharmacopeia of India. 



Epithems of the braised leaves, or embrocations formed by 

 macerating the bruised seeds in any bland oil, are often very 

 effectual in allaying the pain in rheumatic swellings, nodes, 

 boils, and tumours (Ph. Ind.). 



873. D. Metel, Linn, h.f.b.l, iv. 243. 



Vern. : — Dhutura (B.). 



Habitat :--W. Himalaya and Mts. of W. Deccan Peninsula. 



Use : — Used like the preceding species. 



Datura Metel contains scopolamine (hyoscine) as almost the 

 only constituent of alkaloidal nature. The leaves contain 0'55, 

 the seeds 0*50, per cent of scopalamine. — J. Ch, S. 1905 A. 

 I. 717. 



The seed contains both hyoscyamine and scopolamine. — J. 

 Oh. L 15. 2. 1911, p. 152. 



The Indian plant (seeds and leaves) contains considerably less alkaloid 

 than the European plant (0*23-0 25 as compared with 0'50-055) ; in one sample 

 scopolamine was the predominant alkaloid as in the European plant, but 

 another sample contained more hyoxyamine than scopolamine.— [Bull. Imp. 

 Inst. 1911]. 



In his " Poisonous Plants of Bombay," Lieut.-Colonel 



Kirtikar writes : — 



"The active principle of the plant is an alkaloid once known as Daturine. 

 The seed contains it in larger proportions than any other part of the plant 

 weight for weight. The alkaloid was also known at one time as Daturia. 

 Sohn says that commercial Daturine is frequently a mixture of Hyoscyamine 

 and Atropine or the former solely. Datura stramonium, he says, also contains 

 Stramonine which is an alkaloid like Hyoscyamine and Atropine, but it is not 

 bitter. Hyoscyamine has a sharp and disagreeable odour; Atropine has a 

 disagreeable metallic taste.* Erhirdt and Poehl dispute the identity of 

 Atropine and Daturine, says Sohn. Professor Dragendorff says| that " accord- 

 ing to the more recent researches of Ladenburg, henbane contains two 



* See p. 14, Sohn's Dictionary of the Active Principles of Plants, 1894, 

 fjondon. 



t Plant Analysis— English Translation by Greenish, p. 60, 1884, London, 



