MEDlCINAL PLANTS OF JAMAICA. PARTS 1 & 11.

SOLANCEAE
A family of about one thousand seven hundred shrubby and herbaceous species of temperate and warm
regions, many of which contain poisonous alkaloids. Some of the alkaloids are widely distributed within the
family while others are confined to certain genera. They include such well-known substances as atropine,
solanine, nicotine, scopolamine and hyoscyamine. Scattered glycosides, such as petunine and scopoline, and
many organic acids occur. There are few essential oils and little is known of saponins, tannins and resins. Drugs
include belladona, stramonium and capsicum.
CAPSICUM SPP. including C. FRUTESCENS L. Bird Pepper.
Capsicum fruits are much used as condiments in the tropics and contain a pungent principle capsaicin,
which is said to be of a phenolic nature. The vitamins A, C and the B complex, essential oils and fats are also
present. Medicinally they have value as a stimulant and carminative end for their ascorbic acid content. They
have been used externally as a counter-irritant for rheumatism and lumbago. In Africa, infusions of the ripe fruit
are used for dysentery, yaws, fevers, and as a lotion for ringworm of the scalp. The leaves are used for wounds
and soreg. In Jamaica the leaves are commonly used with vaseline or castor oil as a dressing for boils while one
leaf boiled in a little water is thought to increase urine in babies. Lunan gives a prescription for influenza and
sore throat: '-2 tablespoons of small red peppers or three common Cayenne peppers, 2 tablespoons of fine salt;
beaten together to a paste, infused in half a pint of boiling water, strained and half a pint of very sharp vinegar
added when cold'. The dose is I tablespoon every half hour. He also recommends pepper vinegar with honey
and barley water as a mouth wash and gargle. (3, 8, 15, 23, 27).
DATURA STRAMONIUM L. Thorn Apple; Trimona; Jimson or Jamestown Weed; Devils' Trumpets.
This well-known drug plant is used to some extent in Jamaica for asthma and sinus infections. 'It
palliates the distressing paroxysms of pure spasmodic asthma when smoked'. (Lindley). The leaves are rubbed
up and applied externally to swellings, burns and ulcers. Similar uses are made of the plant in South Africa. The
leaves are also used for headaches, haemorrhoids and running sores. Browne reports that in his day the plant
was seldom used internally as its use was accompanied by 'dreadful perturbations of the mind', though it was
tben used for scalds and sores. The leaves have a total alkaloid content of 0.2 to 0.6 per cent, the content
increasing with the age and size of the leaves. The principle alkaloid is hyoscyamine with smaller quantities
of atropine and hyoscine. (2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 14, IS. IB, 19, 23, 26, 27).
PHYSALIS ANGULATA L. Poisonous Cape Gooseberry; Hog Weed; Winter Cherry.
Said by Beckwith to be ground up and mixed with water as a drink for gonorrhoea. In Northern Nigeria
an infusion is given as a drink at child birth, the fruit crushed with milk is taken in cases of sterility (probably a
magical use) and a lotion for ophthalmia in children is prepared from it. (2, 5, 7, 10).
SOLANUM ACULEATISSIMUM Jacq. Cockroach Poison.
In some parts of Jamaica the plant is pounded with lime juice and used for ringworm, the treatment
appearing to be successful. In Africa the fruits of S. nigrum are used for this purpose. The fruits and roots are
used in Africa in the treatment of coughs, dysmenorrhoea and constipation. Dalziel states that the plant contains
solanine 'an alkaloidal glucoside with a physiological action like the saponins, but much less poisonous'. (7, 10,
26, 27).
SOLANUM MAMMOSUM L. Sou8umba; Mackaw Bush; Turkey Berry.
S. TORVUM Sw. Sousumba; Turkey Berry.
Under the name of sousumba tr.e berries of both species provide a vegetable eaten with salt fish. 1t
seems probable that the leaves of both are collected indiscriminately and made into a tea which is used chiefly
as a cold remedy. In Africa the berries of S. torvum are eaten raw or cooked and in Sierra Leone a decoction of
them provides a children's cough remedy. Solanine is said to be present in the berries, together with malic and
gallic acids and saponin. (2, 7, 15, 27).