Datura meteloides

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Also known as: Angel’s trumpet; Sacred datura; Indian apple;
Thorn apple

Plant folklore: In medieval Europe it was associated with witches and witchcraft, after being brought to Europe by gypsies.
On the Indian subcontinent and Russia, it was known as “knockout drops”, which thieves and prostitutes used to knock out their victims.
The priests of the Temple of Apollo and the oracles of Delphi may have reached their prophetic state with the help of hallucinogenic substances contained in daturas.
Widely used in initiation rituals and medicine (as a narcotic) by the American Indians. Its effects are described by Carlos Castaneda in The Teaches of Don Juan.
Almost no other plant has such a history of crime. In the Middle Ages, especially in Italy, professional poisoners would concoct a brew of datura that would be almost painlessly fatal. That quality of deadening the senses before death, or during the perpetration of a crime, made it of the greatest value to criminals. So well known was this ability that Christoval Ascosta, who was in India in 1578, wrote that Hundu whores gave it to their patrons because “these mundane ladies are such mistresses and adepts in the use of the seed that they gave it in doses corresponding to as many hours as they wish their poor victims to be unconscious or transported”…

Factual info: All parts of the plant are poisonous if ingested. It is a
beautiful plant with large exotic flowers. The fruit, covered with spikes, is very toxic, containing tropane alkaloids similar to deadly nightshade.

• 23 Nov, 2009
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