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Synonym: nightshade bird.
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Description. A shrub from the nightshade family (Solanaceae), 22.5 m high. The root system is powerfully developed. The stem is erect, woody, rounded at the base, bare, ribbed, forked above, dark purple, and green below. The leaves are dark green above, light green below, pinnately dissected, on short petioles 1040 cm long, 525 cm wide, oblong-lanceolate, narrowly cuneate at the base. The flowers are large, located in the forks of the stems and side branches. Corolla spike-shaped, up to 5 cm in diameter, violet-blue. The flowers are collected in racemose curls. The fruit is oval, hanging, orange berry up to 2 cm long. Seeds are kidney-shaped, small. Weight of 1000 seeds 1.52 g. Blooms from July to late autumn; seeds ripen in August October.
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Medicinal raw material: herb.
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biological features. Seeds of nightshade lobed ripen earlier than fruits. In addition to seeds, the fruits contain yellow-white stony inclusions, which often get into unpeeled seeds as an impurity. Nightshade is a moisture-loving and heat-loving plant with a long growing season (up to 160 days). Wintering in the conditions of the USSR does not tolerate.
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Spreading. Naturally found in Australia, New Zealand and some other tropical and subtropical regions.
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The cultivation of lobed nightshade in our culture in the USSR began in 1957 (in the Krasnodar Territory, Moldova and Ukraine). Since 1960, it has been cultivated on collective farms and state farms in the Chimkent region of Kazakhstan under irrigation conditions.
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Composition of active substances. The nightshade herb contains two steroidal glycoalkaloids selosonin and salamargin, which give the same aglycone solasodine. Progesterone, cortisone and other steroid hormones, which are very important medicinal preparations, are subsequently obtained from it. The greatest number of solasodine contains immature fruits, somewhat less leaves and non-cordial number of roots and stems.
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Application. Nightshade preparations are used in the treatment of many diseases: polyarthritis, rheumatism, some forms of leukemia, bronchial asthma, skin diseases (for example, pemphigus, eczema). Some nightshade products are used as stimulants to maintain an aging body, in violation of protein metabolism.
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Agrotechnics of cultivation. Site selection. Under nightshade lobed, it is recommended to allocate well-permeable, loose, with increased soil fertility. It also gives good results on fertilized dark medium loamy and sandy loamy serozems in the conditions of the Chimkent region. Poor sandy, saline and clayey heavy soils are unsuitable for it.
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The best predecessors are winter cereals, melons, legumes, as well as tilled crops, which traditionally go for fertilizers, beets, cotton, etc.
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Soil cultivation. Soil cultivation for lobed nightshade is similar to that for other tilled crops.
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Application of fertilizers. According to the long-term data of the Sayram stronghold of the South-Kazakhstan zonal experimental station VILR, the application of manure at the rate of 20 t/ha or mineral fertilizers (60 kg/ha of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer) gives about 30% increase in the yield of raw materials on gray soils. Over 20% increase in yield gives the introduction of 10 kg/ha of phosphorus and 5 kg/ha of nitrogen fertilizers when sown in rows. Good results are also given by top dressing, which is produced twice a summer.
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Reproduction. The nightshade lobed is propagated both by direct sowing of seeds into the ground, and by seedlings grown in greenhouses, as well as by growing roots. Sowing with germinated seeds sprouts 46 days earlier. Sow in early spring. However, under the conditions of the Crimean region, winter sowing gives good results. Under irrigation conditions, they sow simultaneously with the cutting of irrigation furrows. Seeds are sown with row spacing of 70 cm, at a seeding rate of 34 kg/ha and a planting depth of 23 cm, and on light soils 45 cm.
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For the cultivation of nightshade on clogged soils, it is more profitable to use the seedling method. Seedlings are grown in the same way as in vegetable crops. Seedlings are planted on the field at the age of 4045 days with a transplanter with row spacing of 70 cm and distance between plants in rows of 25 cm.
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Plantation care. The first inter-row processing of row-spacings is carried out when shoots of lighthouse plants appear. Then they make a bouquet. Cutouts and bouquets are made no more than 30 cm. Later, as the soil is compacted, crops are cultivated in 2 directions. After the first harvest, plantation grasses are cultivated again in order to retain moisture in the soil.
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Harvest. Nightshade grass is mowed during flowering with a silage harvester SK-2.6, as well as a rotary mower-chopper KIR-1.5 at a height of 1518 cm, which also grind the plants, which contributes to faster drying. The crushed mass is immediately transferred to the place of drying.
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The second mowing of the grass is carried out approximately 3540 days after the first, when the shoots reach a length of 4550 cm, at the beginning of the flowering of new shoots.
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The average yield of green mass of nightshade lobed for one mowing is approximately 1015 t/ha.
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Growing seeds. You can get the seeds of nightshade lobed by seedlings; sowing seeds in the ground; by planting the roots of the previous year’s harvest and stored in the winter in the heaps.
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Seeds are harvested when the fruits turn orange. Due to the non-simultaneous ripening of fruits, they are harvested in several stages. After each collection, for better extraction of seeds, the fruits are passed through a tomato grater. Then the seeds
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scatter in a thin layer on rows or burlap and dry in the open air.
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According to VILR, the average fruit yield is: when planting with roots 3050 centners, with seedlings 1215 centners, with soil sowing 810 centners per hectare.
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Drying is carried out mainly on concreted or asphalted currents, arranged in places protected from the winds or on specially prepared earth currents. And only in inclement weather the grass is dried in dryers.
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Packing is carried out in bales of 50 kg.
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Storage . Store in a dry place with good ventilation.
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quality requirements. In the finished raw material, moisture is allowed 14%, total ash 15, crushed parts passing through a sieve with holes with a diameter of 1 mm, 7; the content of leaves in the grass is not less than 60, brown and blackened parts 20; stems longer than 10 cm 5; stems more than 1.5 cm thick 5. Organic and mineral impurities 1 each; solasodine not less than 0.8%.