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Black nightshade is distributed almost all over the USSR. It grows along riverbanks, in fields, vegetable gardens, near housing, near roads.
Black nightshade is used in medicinal prescriptions only when ripe. Green fruits are unhealthy.
Chemical composition and properties of nightshade
The properties of nightshade have been studied by phytotherapists. Ascorbic acid (353.2 mg%), solanine glycoalkaloid, which has poisonous properties, are found in the fruit. When the fruit is fully ripe, solanine almost disappears.
The leaves contain ascorbic acid (815.5 mg%), steroidal saponins, carotene, citric acid (up to 4.95%).
The properties of nightshade are used to make medicines that can cure ailments.
Acts and uses of nightshade
In the scientific medicine of the USSR, the use of nightshade is not used.
Bulgarian folk medicine uses young shoots with leaves of black nightshade for neuroses, headaches, bladder spasms, stomach and intestinal pain, gout and rheumatism, spasmodic cough, bronchial asthma, menstrual disorders. The properties of nightshade help alleviate the painful symptoms of these diseases. It is used in the form of decoction: 3 g of powdered raw materials cook with 150 ml of water for 10 minutes, drink 2 teaspoons a day. Decoction is prescribed and for gargling against pustules on the gums.
In Austrian medicine for medicinal purposes, the use of nightshade (mature fruits) was recommended as an analgesic, now abandoned due to side effects.
In France, black nightshade has long been used. Hippocrates used it to prevent nocturnal pollutions, and Dioscorides used it for burns of the esophagus and stomach. Other ancient physicians considered the properties of nightshade to be a good sedative. The plant has analgesic properties and in ancient times served as a narcotic before surgery. Consumption of unripe fruit can cause poisoning.
The herb is official in England, France, Portugal, Turkey, Venezuela and other countries. It is also used in Chinese medicine. In Indian medicine, the use of nightshade was prescribed for fever, diarrhea and eye diseases. Juice from the plant is used in chronic liver diseases, tuberculosis, dysentery and hemorrhoids, and tincture of the leaves is used as a diuretic and laxative (Chopra etall., 1956). In Uzbek folk medicine, fresh leaves are used as a wound-healing agent and for headaches. Juice of fresh leaves is injected into the nose in its wound, chronic runny nose and earache; ripe fruits are recommended for sore throat and diphtheria in children.
Abu Ali Ibn-Sina widely used black nightshade for the treatment of various diseases: crushed fresh plant (in the form of a medicinal bandage) was recommended for headaches, for resorption of tumors at the base of the ear and brain diseases; juice of fresh plant - for conjunctivitis, as a sleeping pill and for gargles for throat diseases; the fruit was used as a diuretic and styptic, for uterine bleeding, kidney and bladder diseases. Abu Ali Ibn-Sina indicated that black nightshade apparently has a local anesthetic property.
According to some foreign authors (S. A. Mukherjee, R. К. Dey, S. Paul), the use of nightshade in the form of an aqueous extract of the fruit has a pronounced cholinergic and hypotensive effect.
Mature fruits of black nightshade are recommended for use in food for patients with hypertension and atherosclerosis 5-6 g per day under the supervision of a doctor..
