Botanical atlas

Jimsonweed

Datura stramonium

Datura stramonium has walked a long, uneasy line between medicine and menace for centuries. Various Indigenous peoples of the Americas incorporated it into closely guarded ceremonial and healing traditions, most famously as toloache in parts of Mexico and the American Southwest, always prepared by specialists who understood its dangers intimately. In nineteenth and early twentieth century Western medicine, dried datura leaves were rolled into cigarettes and burned to ease asthma attacks, and the plant's alkaloids were eventually isolated to create scopolamine and atropine, compounds still used in conventional medicine today for motion sickness, eye exams, and anesthesia premedication, though always in carefully measured pharmaceutical doses rather than the raw plant. The common name jimsonweed itself comes from a 1676 incident in Jamestown, Virginia, when British soldiers ate the plant in a salad and spent eleven days in a documented, bewildering delirium.

Safety.

Every part of Datura stramonium, the seeds and seed pods most of all, contains potent tropane alkaloids (atropine, scopolamine, and hyoscyamine) at unpredictable and often high concentrations. Ingesting any part of this plant can cause severe poisoning within a short time: dilated pupils, racing heart, dangerously high fever, agitation, vivid and frightening hallucinations, seizures, coma, and death have all been documented, and there is no reliable "safe" home dose because alkaloid levels vary wildly between plants, seasons, and even individual seeds. It is also a known abortifacient risk and is dangerous in combination with many medications, including other anticholinergic drugs, sedatives, and heart medications. Datura stramonium is not a plant to gather, dry, brew, smoke, or otherwise ingest at home under any circumstance, and it should be kept well away from children, pets, and livestock, who are also vulnerable to its toxicity. If you suspect poisoning, contact emergency services or a poison control center immediately, and always consult a qualified medical professional or toxicologist rather than a home remedy for anything involving this plant.