Datura metel - Devil's Trumpet, Zombie Cucumber

BACKGROUND ORIGIN AND DISTRIBUTION

Datura metel is native to the east Asia, D. stramonium is thought to be from Tropical America. Both have a similar range of medicinal properties. Numerous Datura species have been documented as being used by the Aztecs and modern indians as an intoxicant and hallucinogen in the same way as other tropane plants of the New World. They have also been used in Europe for healing and divination since the 16th century.

USES AND ETHNOBOTANY

Datura metel is of similar toxicity to D. cerantocaula, D. ferox, D. stramonium, and D. innoxia. The plant is a fast growing, robust annual. Some find the aroma of the large white and/or purplish flowers to be objectionable, I think they smell good.

The thorny capsules are seed pods, containing numerous kineyshaped seeds.

Datura metel is a neurotoxin, hallucinogen, and considered to be extremely hazardous. Apparently, falling asleep beneath certain Datura and Brugmansia species can give rise to hallucinatory dreams.

Datura extracts have also been used (or misused) for infanticide, suicide, and murder.

Datura is used medicinally, mainly as an analgestic, used to relieve pain without loss of conscious.

The whole plant, but especially the leaves and seed, is anaesthetic, anodyne, antiasthmatic, antispasmodic, antitussive, bronchodilator, hallucinogenic, hypnotic and mydriatic. This species, and others in its genus, have a long history of use in ethnomedicine.

Caution is advised since a toxic dose can be very close to the medicinal dose. This plant should only be used under the guidance of a qualified practitioner. Many horror stories can recounted about naive individuals who decided to self-medicate with this and other closely related plants only to find themselves in a dark and scary place they never thought they would escape from, and sometimes they were right.

At low doses the alkaloids act as a depressant and sedative, but higher doses can lead to powerful "true" hallucinations, exitation, dry mouth, euphoria, confusion, insomnia, respiratory arrest and death.

The plant contains the alkaloids hyoscyamine, scopolamine, hyoscine and atropine. Atropine dilates the pupils and is used in eye surgery. Dried leaves contain .3 - 1 % tropane alkaloids (mainly hyoscyamine and scopolamine), seeds contain .6 % and roots .2 %.

Sapindaceae, Blighia sapida, Akee, Seso Vegetal

Akee is native to and widely cultivated on the East coast of Africa. The English brought it from there to their colonies in the Caribbean where it is now well integrated. It is the national fruit of Jamaica.

The tree ranges in height from 10 - 25 meters. The canopy is open and broad. The fruit is a capsule in the form of a pear. When the fruit is ripe it splits open, exposing three shiny black seeds encased in a creamy white colored flesh, which is the part consumed. The fleshy arial has been described as looking similar to a small brain.

Akee is a curious and potentially dangerous fruit. If the unripe fruit is opened and the aril is eaten it can be deadly, or sufficiently poisonous to induce a coma. When picked before it is fully ripe the fruit contains a chemical that limits the body’s ability to release the backup supply of glucose that is stored in the liver. That supply is essential because once the body uses up the sugar immediately available in the bloodstream, an event that usually occurs several hours after eating, it depends on this glucose to keep blood sugar levels normal until the next meal. Without it, blood sugar plunges dangerously. Enough people have died from eating unripened akee to make it illegal to bring the raw fruit into the U.S although that restriction doesn’t apply to canned and properly processed akee.

Symptoms of akee poisoning can include uncontrollable vomiting, dizziness, severe hypoglycaemia, convulsions, coma and even death.

However, if the fruit is left to ripen and open itself, the flesh poses no danger whatsoever. All other parts of the fruit should never be eaten.  I remember visiting the Lancetilla botanical gardens Tela, Honduras. In their flier they discuss Akee, giving reference to the wife of the founder to the garden who had the mishap of consuming unripe Akee and, as a result, falling into a coma and eventually dying.

Akee can be eaten fried or boiled, typically with fish or meat. The texture is similar to eggs. A curious fruit indeed.

Akee is considered highly nutritious due to its high content of fats.

The tree thrives in a hot, humid climate and does not support long, dry periods. It is best grown in deep, well drained, soils. Liming is beneficial.

Solanaceae, Datura spp., yellow, triple flower