Thorn Apple

Thorn-Apple (Datura Stramonium), the best-known species of its genus, probably a native of the Caspian region, but commonly occurring on waste ground in England, is a coarse annual solanaceous plant, branching cymosely; with large, terminal, funnel-shaped, pleated, white flowers, followed by four-chambered, four-valved spinous capsules, from which the plant gets its English name. The leaves and seeds contain the poisonous narcotic alkaloid daturine, C₁₇H₂₃NO₃, an isomer of atropine (q.v.), which is valuable as a sedative in neuralgia, epilepsy, etc. The leaves are smoked as cigars in cases of asthma. It has been conjectured that this drug was used by the priests of Apollo at Delphi to produce frenzy.