Dual Nature of Datura stramonium: Exploring Its Medicinal Potential and Toxicity Risks.

Plants have always played a major role in treating human traumas and diseases worldwide. The demand for medicinal plants is increasing in both Plants have always played a major role in treating human traumas and diseases worldwide. 

The demand for medicinal plants is increasing in developed and developing countries due to the growing recognition of natural products. 

Herbal medicine is an important part of both traditional and modern systems of medicine. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that four billion people, about 80% of the world’s population presently use herbal medicine for some aspect of primary health care. 

Numerous scientific reports suggest that medicinal plants could serve as a promising alternative to ineffective antibiotics in combating infectious diseases, among them is Datura stramonium.

Datura stramonium (D. stramonium) is an annual plant belonging to the family Solanaceae. Other common names for D. stramonium include thorn apple and moonflower, it is popularly called GEGEMU OR EWE KAN by the Yoruba tribe of Nigeria.

It originates in America but is found worldwide including North, Central and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa. 

D. stramonium is a foul-smelling, erect, free-branching herb that forms a bush up to 2-5 feet tall. The root is long thick, fibrous and white. It has a simple or bifurcated round, erect, glabrous stem. The leaves are 8-20cm long, smooth, toothed, soft and irregularly undulated. The leaves have a bitter and nauseating taste, which is imparted to extracts of the herbs and remains even after the leaves have been dried. 

D. stramonium is a highly important plant due to its high content of tropane alkaloids and its traditional medicinal use throughout the world.

D. stramonium medicinal significance is mainly because of higher amounts of tropane alkaloids. It possesses many phytoconstituents including alkaloids, flavonoids, amino acids, tannins, saponins, carbohydrates, terpenoids, steroidal glycosides and phenols.

Picture of Datura stramonium  

TRADITIONAL USES OF DATURA STRAMONIUM

D. stramoniumis described as a useful remedy for various human ailments including ulcers, wounds, inflammation, rheumatism and gout, sciatica, bruises and swellings, fever, asthma, bronchitis and toothache. All peart of D. stramonium are used as follows:

Juice: The juice of the leaves in warm milk was used to expel intestinal worms including cestodes.

Seeds: Seeds with palm oil are used externally for insect bites and stings insects. D. stramonium seeds are crushed with grains of rice and taken orally to relieve indigestion.

Leaves: Leaves of D. stramonium mixed with mustard oil are useful in skin disorders.

Flower: Juice of flower petals is used in ear pain and seeds are used as purgative, for cough, fever and asthma.

      

PHARMACOLOGICAL ACTIONS OF DATURA STRAMONIUM

Anti-inflammatory and Analgesic activities:

Ethanolic extracts of leaves of D. stramonium were subjected to preliminary screening for anti-inflammatory activity in albino rats which ethanolic extracts exhibited significant anti-inflammatory activity comparable to the standard drug diclofenac sodium against carrageenan-induced rat paw edema method.

Antioxidant Activities:

The antioxidant activity of D. stramonium  extracts can also be attributed to the presence of phytochemical compounds, which act as potent free radical scavengers and help prevent cellular damage.

Antimicrobial Activities:

 Ethanolic extracts of different parts of D. stramonium  showed better antimicrobial activity than the aqueous extracts. Moreover, the leaf extract was found to be more effective than stem and root.

Anti-Asthmatic Activities:

D. stramonium  contains a variety of alkaloids including atropine and scopolamine, having an anticholinergic and broncho-dilating activity. Atropine and scopolamine act on the muscarinic receptors by blocking them (particularly the M2 receptors) on airway smooth muscle and submucosal gland cells, which dilate bronchial smooth muscle and ease asthmatic attacks.

Anticancer Activities:

An integrated approach is needed to manage cancer using the growing body of knowledge gained through scientific developments. Thousands of herbal and traditional compounds are being screened worldwide to validate their use as anti-cancerous drugs. D. stramonium  in a therapeutic dose of 0.05-0.10 g was used to cure cancer as was reported to have anticancer effects against human epidermal carcinoma of the nasopharynx.

TOXICITY OF DATURA STRAMONIUM

However, in the modern system of medicine, the therapeutic potentials of D. stramonium  are dominated by its toxic effects. The entire plant of D. stramonium especially the foliage and seeds contain dangerous levels of toxins. 

Toxicity occurs because of the presence of up to 28 belladonna alkaloids, predominated by atropine and scopolamine which block the parasympathetic nervous system, atropine and nitrates may also be present. 

Heating or drying does not reduce their toxicity. Numerous other alkaloids have been detected at lower levels in the plant including methylecgonine in the roots, apoatropine in the stems, leaves, and other parts, and tropine in the flowers and other parts. 

The consumption of any part of the D. stramonium plant may lead to a severe anticholinergic effect that may cause toxicity. The risk of fatal overdose is high among uninformed users, and many hospitalizations occur among recreational users who ingest the plant for its psychoactive effects.

D. stramonium toxicity usually occurs within 60 min after ingestion, and the clinical symptoms may persist up to 24 to 48 hours, due to delayed gastric emptying.

Reports have shown that food contamination usually occurs when toxic plant parts are accidentally mixed with edible plants during harvest or processing. In areas where millet, wheat, rye, corn and bean seeds are cultivated and harvested,  D. stramonium  appears sometimes as a common weed, contaminating the grains with D. stramonium  seeds.

The poisonous fruit and seeds of D. stramonium.

Ingestion by mouth: D. stramonium  is likely unsafe when taken by mouth. It contains chemicals that can be toxic leading to dry mouth, enlarged pupils, blurred vision, trouble breathing, hallucinations, panic, and death.

Congestive heart failure (CHF): 

D. stramonium  might cause rapid heartbeat (tachycardia) and might make CHF worse.

Constipation:  D. stramonium  might make constipation worse.

Down syndrome: People with Down syndrome might be extra-sensitive to the potentially toxic chemicals in D. stramonium and their harmful effects.

Esophageal reflux: D. stramonium  might make esophageal reflux worse.

Fever: D. stramonium  might increase the risk of overheating in people with fever.

Stomach ulcers: D. stramonium  might make stomach ulcers worse.

Gastrointestinal (GI) tract infections: D. stramonium might slow emptying of the intestine, causing retention of bacteria and viruses that can cause infection.

Gastrointestinal (GI) tract blockage: D. stramonium might make obstructive GI tract diseases (including atony, paralytic ileus, and stenosis) worse.

Hiatal hernia: D. stramonium  might make hiatal hernia worse.

Narrow-angle glaucoma: D. stramonium  might make narrow-angle glaucoma worse.

Psychiatric disorders: D. stramonium might worsen psychiatric disorders.

Rapid heartbeat (tachycardia): D. stramonium might make rapid heartbeat worse.

Surgery: D. stramonium  might slow breathing. Medicines given during surgery might also slow breathing. Taking D. stramonium along with medications used during surgery might slow breathing too much. 

D. stramonium  usage should be stopped at least 2 weeks before a scheduled surgery.

Ulcerative colitis: D. stramonium might promote complications of ulcerative colitis.

Difficulty urinating (urinary retention): D. stramonium might make this urinary retention worse.

Conclusion:

Plants are very important for pharmacological research and drug development as their bioactive constituents can directly be used as therapeutic agents and precursors for drug development. 

This article has been directed towards various interesting findings of the medicinal value of D. stramonium. Apart from its toxicity, it possesses various phytochemicals which prove it a potent chemotherapeutic agent. Various parts of the plant are used in  Ayurveda to treat human ailments. 

The plant shows various important pharmacological activities due to the presence of active chemical compounds. The findings of this article would be helpful for the development of new agents for medical application  (i.e. especially drugs for asthma,  diabetes,  and epilepsy)  on natural products derived from plants. 

As it is a potentially toxic plant, its adverse effects can be extremely harmful. Therefore despite of beneficial aspects, the risk-benefit ratio should always be taken into consideration before use. It should be used very carefully after the proper consultation of the specialized person and females using it for asthma treatment should stop its use during pregnancy. 

There is a need for further investigation and quantification of phytoconstituents and pharmacological profiles. This information will play an important role in understanding the pharmacological and medicinal aspects of this plant and will also direct future research. Therefore, the pharmacological properties of D. stramonium  should be utilized with thorough knowledge of the possible toxicological outcomes to avoid its side effects.

REFERENCES:

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Balachandran, P., & Govindarajan, R. (2005). Cancer—an ayurvedic perspective. Pharmacological research, 51(1), 19-30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.phrs.2004.04.010

Batool, A., Batool, Z., Qureshi, R., & Raja, N. I. (2020). Phytochemicals, pharmacological properties and biotechnological aspects of a highly medicinal plant: Datura stramonium. Plant Sci, 8(2), 29-40. doi: 10.11648/j.jps.20200802.12

Choudhary, M., Sharma, I., Agrawal, D. C., Dhar, M. K., & Kaul, S. (2021). Neurotoxic potential of alkaloids from thorn apple (Datura stramonium L.): A commonly used Indian folk medicinal herb. Medicinal Herbs and Fungi: Neurotoxicity vs. Neuroprotection, 391-420.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-4141-8_16.

Sharma, M., Dhaliwal, I., Rana, K., Delta, A. K., & Kaushik, P. (2021). Phytochemistry, pharmacology, and toxicology of Datura species—A review. Antioxidants, 10(8), 1291.:https://doi.org/10.3390/antiox10081291

Onyemeh Linda Oluchi