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CLASSIFICATION

ORDER	: Solanales
FAMILY	: Solanaceae
GENUS	: Datura L.
SPECIES	: metel L.
BOTANICAL NAME	: Datura metel L.
SYNONYMS	: ---
COMMON NAME	: Devil’s trumpet.
TAMIL NAME	: Umattai.
HINDI NAME	: Safed dhatura.

PLANT DESCRIPTION

HABIT :  A perennial shrub with terete, glabrous stems.

LEAVES :  Broadly triangular-ovate, truncate at base and unequal-sided, entire at the margins or irregularly dentate, covered with a fine mealy pubescence or glabrous on both sides.

INFLORESCENCE :  Solitary

FLOWER :  Showy often double or triple, one corolla issuing from another. Calyx green, tubular, minutely pubescent outside, 5-toothed at the rim, the teeth triangular. Corolla pure white or more or less tinged with purple, the rim 5-toothed, ovary covered with soft prickles.

FRUIT :  Globose, supported on the reflexed base of the calyx, covered with short tubercles, splitting open irregularly. Seeds numerous, reniform, flat, pale-brown.

FLOWERING AND FRUITING TIME :  August-October

MEDICINAL USES

The seeds of Datura are analgesic, anthelmintic and anti-inflammatory and as such, they are used in the treatment of stomach and intestinal pain that results from worm infestation, toothache, and fever from inflammation.

The juice of its fruit is applied to the scalp, to treat dandruff and falling hair.

IMAGES

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