Papaya - a world class meat tenderizer, natural digestive aid, prevents ulcers, and also a soft contact lense cleaner.Datura Stramonium - SOLANACEAE - Jimsonweed, Jamestown Weed, Datura, Stramonium, Apple of Peru
Datura Stramonium
SOLANACEAE
jimsonweed, Jamestown weed, datura, stramonium, apple of Peru, thorn-apple, stinkweed, deoil’s trumpet, angel’s trumpet
Datura, although poisonous, is often mentioned as a valuable medicine. There is some disagreement about its origin, but it is now found everywhere. The wild plant usually grows around barnyards and in waste but fertile places. It has long been an official drug; it was used in ancient India, whence, presumably, came its name datura. Used as a poison, it stupefied or killed prisoners.
Every part of the plant seems to be dangerous, especially the green seeds which, having harmed children attracted by them, gave the plant such a bad name.
The leaves (the parts used medicinally) are collected just as the plant is in flower, and dried.
An anodyne, narcotic, and antispasmodic, jimsonweed is sometimes substituted for belladonna (Atropa belladonna). Its greatest value seems to be in treatment of the spasmodic coughing of asthma, for which its smoke may be inhaled. But even this, if overdone, may cause violent reactions. Jacobs says, in his Index of Plants, that it has been used as a “sedative, debilitant, hypnotic, mydriatic, and is reputed to be useful in nervous affections … the leaves are applied to boils and ulcers.”
Meyer adds, “Although it may have valuable uses in the hands of a skilled herbalist, it is unsuited to domestic use and should not be employed in home medication.”