Thorn apple
Stramonium; Jimsonweed
- Known today as
- Datura stramonium, of the nightshade family.
- Kind
- Plant, in 1 older authority
- Constituents
- scopolamine, hyoscyamine
- Poisoning
- Tropane (anticholinergic) poisoning
- Earliest authority here
- Jamestown, 1676
- In other databases
- Plants of the World Online search · GBIF search · Wikidata search
Deadly. Poisonous in every part: delirium, fever, and death.
Thorn apple: what was it used for?
Smoked or applied for asthma and pain; notorious as a poison and a drug of delirium.
Thorn apple: what does modern science say?
Contains atropine and scopolamine. Stramonium “asthma cigarettes” were sold into the twentieth century.
Thorn apple: is it poisonous?
Yes, and it can kill. Poisonous in every part: delirium, fever, and death. Its poisoning is tropane (anticholinergic) poisoning: Thirty minutes to a few hours; longer from the skin. Historical description, not medical advice; in a poisoning, call a poison centre.
Pharmacognosy & Toxicology
- Constituents
- scopolamine ChEMBLthe chief alkaloid in Datura
- hyoscyamine ChEMBL
- Mechanism
- Muscarinic blockade, with deep delirium.
- Checked against ChEMBL
- scopolamine: ChEMBL’s curated mechanism: antagonist Muscarinic acetylcholine receptor M1.
- Toxic dose
- Fifty to a hundred seeds; the tea of the leaf has killed adolescents who sought the visions.
- Syndrome
- Tropane (anticholinergic) poisoning
- Standing
- No medicinal use; stramonium cigarettes for asthma were sold into the twentieth century.
- Nelson, L. S., et al. (2007). Handbook of Poisonous and Injurious Plants. Verified against its record · doi:10.1007/978-1-4939-8926-3
Constituent names open the compound’s record at PubChem, and “ChEMBL” beside a name opens its record at ChEMBL, the European Bioinformatics Institute’s database of bioactive molecules. Where a mechanism line was checked against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37, read 1 October 2026), the check is shown with the measured value and its source paper, or says plainly that nothing has been measured. Doses are as the references give them, for description only; this is not medical advice. Each source carries the result of its check against Crossref, PubMed, or the authority’s page: see Verification.
What Medicine Makes of It
- The Witches’ OintmentNightshades on the skin, and what they do.
Thorn apple: what lore surrounds it?
Counted among the herbs of the witches’ ointments, with henbane and deadly nightshade.
Thorn apple: what did the older authorities say?
- Jamestown, 1676
- Robert Beverley tells how soldiers sent to Jamestown ate the plant in a salad and spent eleven days in a harmless madness; hence “Jamestown weed.”
Sources
- Beverley, R. (1705). The History and Present State of Virginia. Verified against its record · doi:10.5149/northcarolina/9781469607948.003.0003
Verification
- Checked
- October 1, 2026
- Passes
- Every sentence read against its sources, in the pass over the remaining 343 entries
- The Standing line checked against the authority it names (EMA, WHO, FDA, CITES, Commission E)
- Every dated or regulatory claim checked by category across the database
- The mechanism read against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37): curated mechanisms and measured activity
- Sources
- 2 cited: 2 verified against its record.
- Corrections
- None were needed.
What was checked, how, and what was found is set out on the Verification page. A checked source is one whose record was found; it does not make the entry medical advice.
Cite This Entry
Version 1 · first published September 25, 2026
- Chicago
“Thorn apple.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified September 25, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/thorn-apple.
- MLA
“Thorn apple.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 25 Sept. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/thorn-apple. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Thorn apple. (2026, September 25). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 8, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/thorn-apple
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See Also
Poisoned alike: tropane (anticholinergic) poisoning
Woody nightshade · Nutmeg and clove · Deadly nightshade · Mandrake · Henbane · the syndrome, with all of them →
Drawing on the same sources: Nelson
Nearby in the alphabet
The thurible · Theriac · Thyme (T) · Tetragrammaton (not pronounced in Jewish practice) · Tinder fungus (A hoof-shaped bracket of birch and beech) · Terra sigillata (A clay dug on the island of Lemnos and stamped with a seal) · Toad (dried, powdered, or worn) · Teonanácatl (Small brown mushrooms that stain blue when bruised)
Historical description, not medical advice.