Name: Datura common – Datura wild (growing and cultivating)
Datura ordinary (datura zvichayny) Datura stramonium L.
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Synonyms: stinky dope, hemlock, water drunk, glomush (Ukrainian bodyak, divderevo, bisderevo).
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Description. An annual herbaceous plant from the nightshade family (Solanaceae) up to 60-120 cm high. The root is branched, sheer, strongly fibrous, fusiform. Stem branched, erect. The leaves are large, up to 15 cm long and up to 10 cm wide, alternate, long-petiolate, dark green above, grayish green below. The flowers are white, large, on short pedicels, located in the axils of the stem and branches. The fruit is a four-celled, two-celled capsule at the top, covered with thorns on the outside. Seeds are black, kidney-shaped, flat. Weight of 1000 seeds 811 g.
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The whole plant is highly poisonous.
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Medicinal raw materials: leaves.
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biological features . Datura ordinary is resistant to drought and very vigorous growth.
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Habitat . It grows like a weed in wastelands, gardens, near dwellings, within roads, etc. Sometimes it forms thickets in wastelands.
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Spreading. Datura is native to southeastern countries.
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At present, it has spread widely throughout the USSR: in some regions of Central Asia, the southern and central strip of the Soviet Union, in Western Siberia, the Far East, the Volga region, Ukraine, and the Caucasus.
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Cultivated in the southern regions of the Ukrainian SSR and in the Krasnodar Territory.
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Composition of active substances . Datura contains the alkaloids hyoscyamine, hyoscine, scopolamine, as well as tannins and protein substances, essential oil, etc. used in the treatment of various diseases. In this case, hyoscyamine is the predominant alkaloid.
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Application. Preparations obtained from Datura leaves are used as an analgesic, antispasmodic in diseases of the respiratory, biliary tract, gastrointestinal tract, for the treatment of bronchial asthma, and neuralgia. Scopolamine is widely used in the treatment of postencephalic parkinsonism, nausea and vomiting in pregnant women, as well as an anesthetic (composed with other drugs); it is also used for sea and air diseases in the form of Aeron tablets.
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Agricultural technology of cultivation . Site selection. Under the crops of Datura, it is necessary to allocate chernozem, clean from weeds and with good soil structure. Clay, heavy, waterlogged and acidic soils are unsuitable. The best predecessors are winter grain crops, going through fertilized fallows, also tilled, with the exception of nightshade tobacco, potatoes, and tomatoes.
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Soil tillage . In early spring, a field intended for Datura is plowed on a fall to the depth of the arable layer. At the first probability of entering the field, harrowing is carried out, and then pre-sowing cultivation.
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Application of fertilizers. Under autumn plowing, 2030 t/ha of manure or compost is applied mixed with mineral fertilizers at the rate of 60 kg/ha of nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium fertilizers. In the case of sowing on a fertilized predecessor, only mineral fertilizers are applied. During the summer, it is recommended to carry out two top dressings, one during the formation of five seven leaves at the rate of 30 kg/ha of the active substance of nitrogen, phosphorus and potash fertilizers, the second only with nitrogen fertilizers at the rate of 30 kg/ha in the budding phase (VILR, 1967).
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Reproduction. Datura propagates directly by sowing dry seeds into the ground in early spring. Sowing is carried out with row spacing of 60 cm with grain seeders at a seeding rate of 10 kg/ha with a placement depth of 35 cm, depending on the nature of the soil. When shoots appear, the row spacing is loosened again and the rows are weeded at the same time. With the appearance of the first true leaves in plants, bouquets are carried out, leaving bouquets 25 cm long (cut length 45 cm). During the summer, three or four times, as necessary, the row spacing is loosened and the rows are weeded.
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Harvest. Leaves are harvested in three to four doses throughout the summer. Harvesting begins at the time of the beginning of the formation of fruits on the first fork of the stem, in the subsequent periods of harvesting, they are determined as the technical maturity of the leaves occurs. In general, cleaning is done in good sunny weather. Since this is done in several stages, one has to be content with the manual method, although the presence of prickly fruits makes the work difficult. In Czechoslovakia, by hybridization of prickly Datura with non-prickly (D. stramonium L. var. inermis (Saeq.) Timm.), a new type of non-prickly Datura “P-59” with a smooth box was obtained; it is more suitable for hand-harvesting and contains 56% more alkaloids than the local variety (Chladek, 1964).
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Drying is carried out in the shade under a canopy, in attics or in well-ventilated rooms, where the leaves are spread in a thin layer, also in special fire dryers at a temperature not exceeding 40 ° C. The end of drying is determined by the state of the midrib of the leaf, which must become brittle.
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Pack . Before packaging, the raw materials are placed in a cool room where they are cured. Then they are packed in bales of 2550 kg.
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Storage of raw materials is carried out in a dry, well-ventilated area on racks.
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In the finished raw material, according to GOST 752655, it is allowed: moisture 14%, brown and blackened leaves 3; parts of dope ordinary (stems, fruits, seeds) 12; crushed leaves passing through a sieve with holes with a diameter of 1 mm, 3; foreign impurities 1; the content of alkaloids is not less than 0.25%.
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