Extractum Stramonium

Extractum Stramonium

Latin Name: Extractum Stramonium

Common Name: Extract of jimson weed, or thornapple

Classification: Narcotic, tonic, diuretic, anodyne, antispasmodic, and antitussive

Isolated Drug/s: Hyoscamine and daturia

Medicinal Usage: A potent narcotic like belladonna, Stramonium causes many side effects as the dose increases, including vertigo, headache, dim vision, confused thought, a feeling of suffocation, sleepiness, relaxation of the bowels, diuresis, and diaphoresis, all of which persist for several hours. In larger doses, it causes heart pain, excessive thirst, nausea and vomiting, a sense of strangulation, anxiety, blindness, delirium, tremors, palsy, convulsions, and death.

Used chiefly in disorders of the nervous system such as neuralgia, mania or epilepsy. Stramonium can also be applied as an ointment or poultice to cutaneous inflammations, and to the eye to dilate the pupil for cataract extraction. The berries provide the highest concentrate of the drug, whilst the leaves can be smoked to alleviate asthma. Doses can be given as a powder, tincture, ointment, or extract (as here).

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Specimen: Datura Stramonium L. Image courtesy of the New England Botanical Club.