Devil’s trumpet poisoning: A case report

Datura is a common plant in India that grows abundantly in the wild across the country. The common names of datura plant are Jimson weed, Stinkweed, Devil’s trumpet, Mad apple and Thorn apple etc. It is considered as a deliriant poison. Very few cases of intentional poisoning with Datura are reported in the literature. But accidental poisonings are though rare but not uncommon.Hereby we present a case of 37 years old male, who got poisoned by datura accidentally, following which he developed giddiness and was brought to our hospital. The diagnosis and treatment of the datura poisoning will be discussed.

Facing tropane alkaloid contamination in millet

Thorn Apple or Jimson Weed (Datura stramonium) is a tropane alkaloid containing widespread pest plant growing in central Europe. This pest predominantly occurs in millet, buckwheat and maize cultivation. Therefore, sound cleaning of these crops is just as pivotal as reliable analytics. The cleaning of millet at laboratory scale with commercial mechanical cleaning devices, such as sieves, indented separators or table sorters without using colour sorters, reduces the dark coloured Datura seed content by up to 99%. Nevertheless, the few remaining Datura seeds (up to one nut per 30 kg) could lead to an exceedance of the European Union (EU) limit values for tropane alkaloids in baby food. However, plant material other than seeds or even invisible abrasion of Datura seeds can contaminate the millet during harvest, handling, cleaning processes or crop transportation. Contamination originating from adhesive dust can be removed by dehulling the kernels, and a reduction below the EU detection limit could be achieved.

Phytoinsecticides to Fight Against Colorado Beetle

Nowadays researchers are focused on biological farming. In modern environmental conditions the reduction of the chemical load on the environment is a current issue. In the article the following plants are used as pest management, especially, with Colorado potato beetle: jimson weed, white hellebore, Camelina. They contain a lot of alkaloids and essential oils that inhibit weeds and frightening off potato pests. The use of such agricultural practices on large areas reduces the cost of chemical means of pest control and improves product quality while maintaining the environment.