Stout annual herb, tomentose with erect, glandular hairs. Mature leaves broadly ovate, the lamina up to 20 cm long, almost entire, slightly sinuate, or irregularly lobed towards base. Calyx 5-11 cm long, 3-6-lobed; lobes 13-20 mm long, sometimes incompletely separated. Corolla 12-19 cm long, white with green veins; limb undulate, appearing 10-lobed, alternate lobes broadly triangular or ending in a slender point 5-10 mm long. Stamens not exserted; anthers 8-10 mm long. Style 10-14 cm long; stigma well below anthers. Capsule globose or nearly so, 3-5 cm long, deflexed, spiny; spines numerous, slender, sharp, all about equal in length, to 10 mm long; persistent base of calyx to 20 mm long, very prominent. Seeds 4-5 mm long, brown.

Anodyne, antispasmodic, hallucinogenic, hypnotic and narcotic (plant)

Plants For A Future

Apoatropine, atropine, scopoletin, tigloidine (plant); betulinic acid (tissue culture); hyoscyamine, scopolamine (flower)

The plants are used in the past as a pain killer and also in the treatment of insanity, fevers with catarrh, diarrhoea and skin diseases. It is also indicated in asthma, boils, bronchosis, cough, cramps, dandruff, earache, hemorrhoids, hydrophobia, insomnia, motion sickness, nervousness, ophthalmia, Parkinsonism, phthisis, pyorrhea, seasickness, sores, spasms and tumors

James A Duke and Maryl Fulton. Handbook of Medicinal Herbs - 2nd Edition, P: 728, CRC Press July 2002.