Snaps blur – Datura Stramonium

Snappy blur description:

Datura Stramonium L. Read the article: Description of History of Occurrence Usage Harvesting Cultivation Active ingredients (Old or other familiar names: bladderwort, buttercup, bladderwort, blurred buttercup, popcup, popping, popping, putty, bladderwort, bladderwort, wonderweed, barnyard, bogwort, bogwort, bull-headed thistle, thorn apple, devil’s trumpet, Peruvian apple, moonflower, bull-grass, funnel-leaved bindweed)

Solanaceae – family Solanaceae Stems grow to about one metre (up to 180 cm in richer soils), very branched and glabrous. Leaves are ovate but strongly toothed-edged, lobed, pointed-tipped and short-toothed, reaching 20-30 cm. The flowers are arranged in the axils of the leaves. Flowers are solitary and large. The flower has the following parts: the outermost part of the flower is the calyx, which is green, tubular and five-toothed; inside this is the large, large, white-coloured pistil, which is funnel-shaped and also five-toothed. In the pileus are 5 stamens; these are thread-like parts, each with a yellow head. The pollen develops in the latter. The seed coat is in the innermost part of the flower. This is a small spherical case with the filamentous pistil at its apex.

After flowering, the pistil turns yellow and withers with the stamens, and the calyx also withers and falls off, leaving only the seed coat of the flower, from which the pistil is produced. This pod is very conspicuous; it is about the size of a walnut or small apple and is full of prickly spines. The inside of the pod is divided into 4 compartments. When ripe, the top of the capsule opens up into four, releasing the seeds that have formed inside. The seeds are black kidney-shaped and very hard-skinned. Its spiny cap is rolled with a stick and called a spiny pig by children. Mascarpone lilac is an annual plant that reproduces from year to year by its sprouted seeds. In our area, the bluebells bloom from mid-June to the end of September. They have an unpleasant smell when they open and a pleasant fragrance in the evening. It can bloom all summer, the flowers usually opening at night, which is favoured by night butterflies.

History of snap bog:

The snap bladderwort was cultivated in England by Gerarde towards the end of the sixteenth century from seeds from Constantinople. But Candolle D. Tatula was considered a ‘native’ of Central America, and was introduced to Europe in the sixteenth century, first in Italy and then in south-western Europe, where it is still very common. In the early days, it was the snapping mistletoe that helped witches; in England, during the persecution of witches and wizards, no one was lucky if they grew mistletoe in their garden. The common name Datura is taken from the Arabic name for the plant, Dhatura. The Latin species name stramonium is the old common name of the genus. It is thought to be derived from the word struma, meaning swollen.

America

D. stramonium is native to India or Central America. It was used as a mystical sacrament in both possible places of origin. Native Americans used this plant in sacred ceremonies. In some tribes, Datura was used in people’s ceremonies. The sadhus, Hindus also use the plant as a spiritual tool, smoking it mixed with cannabis in their traditions. It has also been widely used since ancient times by the Hungarian spiritual leaders, the táltos. In the United States it is known as jimson weed, gypsum weed, angel trumpet, hell bell or less commonly jamestown weed; so named because of the town of Jamestown. The effects of snap weed on the central nervous system have been used for medicinal, recreational and criminal purposes.

India and Russia

In India and Russia, ground seeds used to be mixed with water and used by thieves to stun their victims before kidnapping them. The drug causes sedation, involuntariness and amnesia, so victims cooperate and don’t sleep. Thugs who belonged to an ancient Indian religious organisation that worshipped Kali, the goddess of destruction, used the same mixture to kidnap and murder people, using it as a criminal poison, professional poisoners are called Dhatureeas. In Europe, the seeds of the snapdragon were first known as a poison during the Renaissance. In antiquity, the priests of Apollo consumed small doses of snapdragon leaves at Delphi to inspire them when making prophecies. In China, mist leaves were prescribed for foot ailments and for their sedative properties, used in tuberculosis-induced bloating, hyperacidity and night sweats, and as a painkiller for broken bones. The Asians used the leaves as a painkiller, as a decoction for skin problems and as a powder inhaler for respiratory problems. In India, seeds were prescribed to relieve epilepsy and heart disease. The dried leaves are used in cigarettes to treat asthma and bronchial complaints. Extracts of snapdragon maslag have also been added to bronchial medicines.

Europe

In Europe, the use of dried leaves as a treatment for asthma and coughing asthma has had occasionally fatal outcomes. The Mexican Indians consumed a decoction of leaves to relieve labour pains (later scopolamine was used for this purpose). In Europe, maslag seeds and extracts were used to treat mania, seizures, melancholia, rheumatism and insanity.

The plant was also prescribed as a painkiller, antispasmodic and was consumed to treat seizures, delirium tremens, neuralgia and rheumatism. In Britain, a poultice made from a decoction of the poultice cooked with bacon fat was used to treat inflammations and burns. Its juice was used as a hair loss remedy, while the juice from the flower was used for earache. It is said that poorer Turks used Stramonium instead of opium for smoking. The plant was first mentioned by the Spanish after the mid-16th century as an ornamental garden plant. German sources also mention it only after 1584.

History of Jamestown

Interesting story of British soldiers sent to Jamestown, Virginia, in 1676 to put down Bacon’s Rebellion. After mixing the slag into a salad, it was reported that the soldiers went mad for about eleven days, after which the effects finally wore off. This incident is probably the source of the plant’s American common name jimsonweed, a shortened version of the James Town weed. From an anthropological point of view, the use of D. stramonium by the Algonquin Indians of Virginia is a great example of the role of hallucinogens in the ‘rites of passage’ during the ‘liminal’ period. The concept of liminality was first discussed by Arnold Van Gennep in Passaga Rites (1908) and later elaborated by Victor Turner. The liminal period is a part of the ‘rite of passage’, during which initiates are removed from the social milieu and participate in reflection and cognition of the society in which they are initiated. Victor Turner has pointed out the importance of studying this phenomenon in order to understand the processes of social change within a culture from generation to generation. The use of Datura in this rite provides such insight.

Huskanawing Ceremony

Beverly’s History of Virginia (1705) describes the huskanawing ritual. The ritual is performed every fourteen or sixteen years

Practiced by Algonquins, it involved taking society’s “choicest and brightest” young man into the forest and ritually administering a poisonous medicine (wysoccan) containing datura. The ritual was necessary if the young men hoped to become great men or officers in society. Kept in a cage or holding house for several months, local doctors carefully fed the boys only wysoccan, making them “hard and mad” for eighteen or twenty days, so that they “lost completely the memory of their former life”. When they were given a sufficient dose they gradually reduced the quantity and the young men slowly regained their senses. Before the effects of the potion had completely worn off, however, the boys were taken back to their villages and carefully monitored to discover any memories of their former lives. If any showed signs of remembering, the whole ritual had to be performed again, this time at great risk to the lives of the initiates.

The case of Abraham Lincoln

Some descriptions might make it seem that the snapdragon masque is a fairly widely used, relatively harmless hallucinogenic plant, but this is not the case at all! There are good reasons for the dark reputation of snapdragon, and probably one of the most famous examples is the case of Abraham Lincoln’s mother, Nancy Hanks, who drank the milk of a cow that had previously grazed on the plant. Her death had a huge impact on Lincoln, and the President abstained from alcohol for the rest of his life.

Impact on animals

The emergence of human safe use, how did it come about? How did humans learn to use the snap mask safely? One possible answer lies in the eating habits and behaviour of animals. Tribal peoples living much more closely with nature probably observed the effects of the smudge on different animal species and copied their habits. Modern scientists have observed that some nocturnal butterflies become disoriented and disoriented after feeding on flowers. Despite this, the butterflies still try to return to the plant for further feeding. The hummingbird also likes the snapdragon blur, after consuming it it goes into a narcotic state and then stiffens as a corpse for a few hours. Other research has also shown that animals rarely consume hallucinogenic plants, apparently recognising the fact that tolerance can easily develop from regular use. Interestingly, some animals are unaffected by the snap blur. Beetles have developed biochemical defences against the strong chemicals in the plant, and it appears that ants have done the same. Often

have been observed to take seeds. Bees are also unaffected, and various species of birds are known to eat the seeds, acting as a dispersal mechanism for the plant. As a model for the study of animals, ancient hunter-gatherers probably began to use the snap blur, and many incorporated it into shamanistic rituals, as a powerful and dangerous hallucinogen.

Occurrence of snap blur:

It is doubtful to which country it originally belonged. Many European botanists refer to North America, while there it is considered part of the Old World. Nuttall thinks it originated in South America or Asia, and that its native country is probably in the east. Alphonse de Candolle, in his Geographie Botanique (1855), states that D. stramonium is native to the limits of the Caspian Sea or adjacent regions, but not to India; it grows abundantly in the wild in southern Russia, east of the limits of the Black Sea as far as Siberia. Its seeds are viable for a very long time, so the plant reproduces in all regions, and is now widespread throughout the world except in the colder or Arctic regions; it is a very invasive species, distributed in the warmer climates of the whole world. The snapdragon bladderwort grows in uninhabited places, somewhere it is kept as an ornamental plant. It occurs along roadsides, in gardens

next to fences, in rubbish heaps, around manure heaps and in fallow areas. It was not originally widespread in our area and is said to have spread only with chiggers. When the gypsies migrated, they took the seeds of this plant with them and sowed them alongside their putri, because they had already used it for healing and as a curative. It spread in Europe in the 16th century, first in botanical gardens and later in domestic gardens. (It is believed from observation that the seeds are carried by birds and spread by their droppings.) Some sources say that it was introduced from Asia during the Turkish period. In the field, the bluegrass does not grow much, except along roadsides and in manure fields, but it is more common around the entrails of villages. It is found in maize, potatoes and carrots, i.e. in ruderal areas. Poisonousness and antidote: Snapdragon is a very poisonous plant! Most poisonous are the leaves and seeds. It is quite common for children to play with the seed pods and unknowingly eat the seeds (they have a sweet taste), thus poisoning themselves. If a man swallows the seed or leaf of a blurred crabapple, the poisoning takes such a person that he becomes intoxicated as if drunk, then delirious, losing his consciousness and memory. He is tormented by sleep; then he has convulsions, his hands and feet become paralysed and stiff, and he may go mad, and cold sweat covers his body and his whole body trembles. The man is tormented by an endless thirst, his belly burns and swells, and finally, after these agonies, death comes. For all this, one must be very careful not to be poisoned by this plant. If someone has been poisoned by this plant, he should be given an emetic as soon as possible. Give him milk or oil or melted fat mixed with lukewarm water, and then give him a large quantity of an acid drink, such as vinegar water (for vomiting). Also common, another of our native poisonous plants is the bladderwrack and the belendek.

The use of snappy blur:

Knapweed was an important medicinal plant. In the pharmacy, the leaf was mostly used because it was

contains large amounts of the poison used to make a potent medicine. Its leaves are sold (-toted) under the name of herba or folia strammonii. The leaves of the bladderwort are used mainly for nervous disorders, gout and severe pains. The leaves are also used to make cigars (asthma cigarettes), which are used as a remedy for chest pains (also for certain forms of heart rhythm disorders). Nowadays it is used to treat asthma attacks and as a symptomatic treatment for Parkinson’s disease. Anticholinergic, parasympatholytic action. They reduce or inhibit spasms of the bronchi, gastrointestinal system, biliary tract, urinary tract. For children, up to 15 grains of seed can be DEADLY! (There is sometimes little difference between the therapeutic dose and the lethal dose) Also used/used as a narcotic due to hallucinogenic effects causing unconscious, delirious, unpleasant states lasting 4-24 hours! Most cases end in hospital with a high risk of fatal overdose. Children are most at risk due to the sweetness of the seed. The whole plant is poisonous, but the seeds contain most of the active ingredient; neither drying nor boiling destroys the toxic properties.

Symptoms of poisoning (effect after 2-6 hours, later onset when hazardous substances are difficult to remove and symptoms can last for days, some sources report 30-60 minutes after ingestion and symptoms last 24-48 hours, some cases have been reported up to 2 weeks)

• rapid heartbeat, hyperthermia, tachycardia
• seizures
• agitation
• light avoidance, (pupil dilation)
• dry mucous membranes (thirst)
• colicky restlessness
• dullness
• sleepiness
• paralysis
• collapse
• cold sweat

Home use is not recommended! Only under medical supervision!

Taking a snap mask:

The leaves of the mascarpone blossom should be harvested for the pharmacy in July (in the VII and VIII Hungarian Pharmacopoeia

is listed as an official drug with strong effects ). The leaves of the bladderwort are valuable when the bladderwort is in flower and while it still has immature capsules. The cleanly picked leaves should be dried in an attic, barn or shed so that they retain their green colour. It is advisable to string the leaves like tobacco and dry them. This will give a more valuable product. The value of the dried leaves varies according to their colour. Four kilos of fresh leaves will yield one kilo after drying. The leaves can be harvested several times in a summer from the same plant (but this is no longer recommended!) The dried leaves are packed in crates to prevent them from crumbling. You can also bag the leaves, but they lose their value because they break. If you want to achieve a higher price, you should not put the carefully dried leaves in bags. Freshly picked leaves have a strong odour, and the whole plant has a very strong and unpleasant smell. The smell of fresh leaves can cause dizziness and headache, so be careful when drying leaves and do not dry them indoors, but only in a ventilated place. The seed of the mascarpone bunch-rose is also used in pharmacy under the name of semen stramonii.

The seeds should be collected in autumn (one plant yields 500-5000 seeds). The seeds should only be collected when ripe, as only the black coloured seeds are of value. The best time to pick the seeds is in September. For this purpose, cut off the mature spiny stems and spread them out on a tarpaulin in a ventilated place. The ripe pods will pop open. Once the spikelets have bounced up and down, the seeds are plucked. The well-dried seeds are stuffed into bags and transported in this way. When drying or transporting the leaves or seeds of the bladderwort, care should be taken not to mix them with other herbs, because bladderwort is very poisonous and if mixed with less poisonous or even non-poisonous herbs, it can easily cause great harm! The more potent Indian or meadowsweet (Datura innoxia) from the tropics has been cultivated and used by industry for its higher scopolamine content to make antispasmodic and astringent pain relieving medicines.

Cultivation of snapdragon:

Although it grows in large quantities in the wild, it has been cultivated in our country. It is grown by sowing seeds in March or April. It is indiscriminate in soil, but grows best in nutrient-rich soil (nitrogen indicator). It prefers calcareous soil, and the concentration of alkaloids in the snapdragon can be increased by adding nitrogen fertiliser. The plant requires 40×50 cm of space. To sow a catastrophic acre, 2-3 kg of seed are required, yielding 0-8 q of leaves and 4-5 q (mase) of seed. It does not tolerate frosts and cold spells well (it dies), and its seeds germinate in spring (seed germination starts at 20°C,) especially in spring and summer. Plants can also be germinated from seed, sown in hotbeds in February or March, in April, in cool greenhouse boxes; seedlings, if large enough, can be placed in small pots, in which they need plenty of light and air, until June, when they will flower.

Active ingredients of Snapple Mist:

Daturin (a mixture of hyoscyamine and atropine), hyoscyamine, atropine, scopolamine (low content), accompanying substances may include: steran-based witanolides, hydroxycoumarins and flavonoids, malic acid, resin and starch. It contains tropane alkaloids, which have hallucinogenic properties and are severely toxic. Hyoscyamine, which is partially converted to atropine on drying. The seeds also contain 25% fatty oil. The leaves are rich in potassium nitrate (antispasmodic). The amount of toxins varies from plant to plant. There can be a variation of up to 5:1 between plants and the toxicity of a particular plant depends on its age, where it is growing and local weather conditions. In addition, toxin concentrations within a given plant may vary partially or even from leaf to leaf. When the plant is younger, the ratio of scopolamine to atropine is about 3:1, after flowering this ratio is reversed and the amount of scopolamine decreases steadily as the plant ages. In traditional cultivars, extensive experience and detailed knowledge of datura has been critical to minimize damage. Each seed contains about 0.1 mg atropine, and adult humans have an approximate lethal dose of >10 mg atropine or >2-4 mg scopolamine.

Ingredients	Quantity
Mineral composition of the seed (mg per 100 g)
Calcium	231
Chromium	0,22
Copper	1,64
Iron	130,05
Potassium	654
Magnesium	289
Manganese	13.40
Sodium	17.50
Zinc	5,95
Analysis of unrefined seeds (%)
Moisture content	7.7
Fibre	17.8
Fat	18.1
Nitrogen	3.1
Carbohydrate	31.9
Starch	1.1
Sugar	2.1
Reducing sugar	0.3
Glucose	0.16
Amino acid content in defatted seeds (g / 16g)
arginene	6,54
isoleucine	3.22
leucine	5.31
lysine	3.19
methionine	1,38
Phenylalanine	3,47
threonine	3.14
tryptophan	0.51
valine	3,62

Source: Dr. Ferenc Darvas and Dr Gyula Magyary-Kossa,Domestic herbs, their production, marketing, effects and medicinal uses Páter Béla, The wild herbs (1906) Cover image source:https://upload.wikimedia.org Bhakta Prasad Gaire, Bachelor in Pharmaceutical Sciences https://botanical.com Andreas Wacker, Herbs in Homeopathy, ISBN:978 963 7268 71 7 Jenő Rápóti-Vilmos Romváry, Medicinal plants, ISBN:963 241 190 0 Bertalan Galambosi, 88 colour pages on herbs and medicinal plants, ISBN:963 231 455 7 Jenő Bernáth, Medicinal and aromatic plants, ISBN:963 286 258 9 Babulka Péter, Discovering wild medicinal plants, ISBN:963 9237 66 3 Dr. János Zelenyák, The effects and uses of medicinal plants Lesley Bremnes, Spices and Herbs, ISBN:963 545 041 9 Ingrid and Peter Schönfelder, Herb Guide, ISBN:963 684 124 1 Bernáth Jenő-Németh Éva, Collection, cultivation and use of medicinal and aromatic plants ISBN:978 963 286 493 8 Source of images: https://weedid.cals.vt.edu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki