Datura.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.herbs
Subject: Datura
From: ken_a_ailsworth.ccmail.orl.mmc.com (kenneth a. ailsworth)
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 1995 14:57:35 -0500
> I've been hearing about Datura and wonder if anyone has any info on this herb?
The herb in question is Datura stramonium, commonly known as jimsonweed or thornapple. It contains scopolamine, atropine, and several ather psychoactive alkaloids. It is a very dangerous herb to consume; a saying is that it makes you "dry as a bone, red as a beet, blind as a bat, and mad as a hatter." A number of deaths have been attributed to its use.
From: Stephanie Goble <Stephaniex_goble.ccm.ch.intel.com>
> I've been hearing about Datura and wonder if anyone has any info on this herb?
It's a well-known hallucinogen, grows wild practically everywhere, and also contains some very nasty toxins. Some of them will kill you quickly, others cause liver damage and let you die slowly.
Datura is VERY VARIABLE - two plants growing in the same locale the same season have different levels of active substances .... the dosage could be ½ leaf or the whole plant. You'll never know it until you overdose. You would need a decent organic chem lab to analyse the leaves before you could begin to get a safe dose. A plant with a low level hallucinogen might have a high or low level of heart-stoppers or liver-killers.
However, its popularity amongst the young might serve to remove the truly stupid from the gene pool.
From: dww5.psu.edu (Dale Woika)
> I've been hearing about Datura and wonder if anyone has any info on this herb?
Be very, very careful with all of the daturas, including the bush, tree, & Jimsonweed varieties. All of these are loaded with tropane alkaloids; not only are some of these very toxic, but many of the alkaloids contained therein produce antagonistic pshysiological effects in people, with unpredictable and hard to treat effects.
If you develop a dry mouth (dry everything, in fact) you have taken enough for the atropine to be effecting you adversely. It has been said many times, why risk damaging your heart, liver & CNS for a walk on the weird side? Stick to the safe herbs, forget daturas.
