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Myth and Folklore: Dangerous Datura

© Gregg Pasterick

In wildflowers, nothing spells myth and folklore like chemistry; compounds found in plants that do dastardly things to a body. A poster child for botany with pharmacological implications, not to mention myth and folklore is the genus Datura, in the Nightshade (Solanaceae) clan. The chemistry is in the form of major alkaloids.

As a whole, the Nightshade family is an attention grabber. It puts food on the table in the form of potatoes, tomatoes, peppers and tomatillos. It packs pipes and rolling papers with tobacco. It splashes rainbows across the garden as petunias. And it gives us dangerous medicines and deadly poisons, particularly in the Datura) branch of the family.

Some of these plants are widely known, as weeds if nothing else. And over time they have been employed by the shaman and the medicine man and the holy man of probably every group or tribe to dare have a taste. We know them as Jimsonweed and/or Thornapple (D. stramonium, D. innoxia, and D. meteloides), and they can be found throughout North America.

Most of us are familiar with the tale of the Jamestown soldiers who, getting a 300 year jump on the psychedelic 60’s, spent eleven days in an altered state after a Jimsonweed salad. Robert Beverly, in 1705, wrote, “...some of them eat plentifully of it, the effect of which was a very pleasant comedy...” When the effects waned, those who ate the salad remembered nothing of the previous eleven days.

Among Native Americans, Datura has been regarded as a scared plant, used to induce visions and visit with the gods. It has also been used medicinally. The complete spectrum of these uses have been employed by the Zunis.

To commune with the Feathered Kingdom, Zuni Rain Priests put the powdered roots of D. innoxia in their eyes. Also, they chew the roots in order to ask the dead to parley with the spirits for rain. As a medicine, the Rain Priests use the plant to clean wounds, and to deaden pain during simple operations.

The Navajo bridged the gap between spirits, healing and visions in one fell swoop with Datura). Visions brought on by the plant often revealed the cause of a disease. Once the cause was known, a curing chant was often prescribed.

Datura has also been used in initiation rites for boys entering puberty. Initiates were made to fast; they then drank a decoction made from the roots. This decoction was often prepared ritually, to the accompaniment of singing. As the decoction began to take effect, each boy, in the care of an adult, was taken to a ceremonial enclosure. There the boys remained for several hours to several days, having visions, and learning to “unlive” their boyhood, becoming men.

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