Solanaceae - a heterogeneous family, including edible cultivated vegetables (potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant), decorative flowers, medicinal and poisonous wild herbs. The poison contained in most representatives can kill an adult, but is often used in official medicine. More interesting facts about nightshade - in the article.
Characteristic of the nightshade family
Solanaceae is a family of plants, which in 2019 has 115 genera and more than 2700 species. People come across many of them daily: indoor flowers, common vegetables, tobacco and medicinal plants.
Representatives of nightshade
Representatives are divided into three life forms:
- herbs;
- shrubs (erect and creeping);
- trees (nightshade or acnistus).
Together with the family of "bindweed" form the general order of nightshade.
Features of nightshade plants
Mostly representatives have a delicate pleasant aroma. Poisonous species are partially covered by glandular cells and exude a pungent odor.
Important! Most nightshade contains solanine. This toxic substance related to alkaloids does not cause harm in a small concentration. The maximum amount is found in unripe fruits with a green peel (tomatoes, eggplant, pepper, etc.). Therefore, green fruits and tops cannot be used for livestock feed. During heat treatment, solanine is destroyed.
A dangerous dose of alkaloids is found in hen, dope and belladonna. Poisoning provokes fever, headache, dizziness, diarrhea. With a prolonged reaction, the thyroid gland function is impaired, digestive organs are damaged, and vision deteriorates.
Actions in case of poisoning: call an ambulance, then drink water with some absorbent and cause vomiting.
Signs of the nightshade family
The family belongs to the class of dicotyledons. This means that plant seed embryos have two lateral cotyledons. Monocotyledonous plants, as the name implies, have one share. Representatives of monocotyledons are quite similar in their characteristics. Solanaceae are very different from each other, however, a number of common features can be distinguished.
Characteristic features of nightshade listed in scientific presentations:
- leaf shape: smooth, serrated, with incisions or in the form of lobes;
- below and in the middle of the stem leaves are located singly, in the flower-bearing part - in pairs;
- inflorescences are medium-sized curls, often with a scattering of flowers;
- a cup most often has 5 leaves, less often - from 4 to 7;
- the whisk can be in the form of a wheel, saucer, funnel.
Common symptoms
Solanum fruit
Fruits are berries (peppers, nightshade, eggplant, potatoes, physalis, etc.) or boxes (tobacco, petunia, belladonna, bleached, dope). Boxes open on the wings. Seeds are kidney-shaped, contain a large amount of protein.
Inflorescence of nightshade plants
Inflorescence types - curl or gyrus. Flower formula: * H (5) L (5) T5P1. Value:
- calyx consists of five fused sepals;
- corolla consists of five fused petals;
- the number of stamens adhered to the petals is five;
- the pestle is one.
Flower structure
Leaves of the nightshade family
Simple, lobed, sometimes dissected. On the stem are arranged alternately. Stipules absent. Some representatives are covered with hairs.
List of nightshade crops:
Herbaceous plants
The nightshade family, with more than 2,600 species, consists mainly of herbaceous plants.
- mandrake;
- tobacco;
- eggplant (solanaceous dark-fruited);
- potatoes;
- bitter and sweet peppers;
- bittersweet nightshade (wolfberry);
- scopolia;
- false pepper nightshade;
- ampelous calibers;
- jasmine nightshade and others
Vegetable plants
Vegetable nightshade plants:
- Potatoes. The tubers of the plant, which are modified underground shoots, are consumed. In gardens, potatoes are traditionally propagated using tubers, but cultivation using seeds is possible. The potato fruit is an inedible greenish berry with seeds inside.
- Eggplant. Wild plants are perennial and cultivated are perennial. From a botanical point of view, a blue fruit is a berry. Most often, unripe fruits with a purple-violet color are used for food. After full ripening, the eggplant peel acquires a brownish-green color, and the fruit itself becomes hard and tasteless.
- Capsicum (sweet and bitter). The sharp taste of the vegetable gives the alkaloid capsacin.
- Tomatoes (tomatoes). As in the previous case, the fruits are berries, not vegetables.
Interesting! In 1893, the US Supreme Court in the process of resolving a customs dispute recognized tomatoes as vegetables, since they are not eaten for dessert.
Other edible non-vegetable nightshade nightshade:
- Melon Pear. It is found in gardens in Russia, but not grown on an industrial scale. The fruits have a sweet taste and contain a large amount of vitamins, micro and macro elements.
- Physalis. The botanical characteristics are similar to tomatoes. In the CIS, physalis is most often found in confectionery - it is used as a decor. Also, from fruits that are hidden in cups, you can make jam or salting.
Physalis
Decorative nightshade plants
This group includes indoor and garden flowers, shrubs and even creepers. They are characterized by numerous large, bright flowers.
Interesting! Potato and solanaceous tomatoes were brought to Europe as ornamental plants.
Decorative plants include many plants.
Petunia
A common plant in the CIS with lush flowering, which lasts several months. It has bright petals with spots or small patches. The core is yellow or white. New buds form until October. Shoots hang down, so petunia is often used in vertical landscaping.
Sweet tobacco
The plant has relatively small but extremely fragrant flowers that open after sunset. Color - white or hot pink. For cigarettes and cigars, dried tobacco leaves containing a lot of nicotine are used.
Sweet tobacco
Bittersweet nightshade
Ideal for placement near a pond, as it feels comfortable in high humidity. Has oblong pointed leaves. After flowering, forms bright scarlet round fruits, which persist from April to October.
Capsicum
An unusual houseplant known as houseplant. Fruits - peppercorns of red, yellow, white, orange or purple. They have a burning taste, as they contain capsaicin.
Capsicum
Calibrachoa
A plant with abundant flowering. It has a look similar to petunia - bells of all kinds of colors. In the gardens you can find purple, soft and bright pink, peach, yellow, red, white flowers and even a colorful mix.
Calibrachoa
Wild plants
The nightshade family consists of cultural and wild representatives. The latter category includes:
- black nightshade;
- bittersweet nightshade;
- ordinary dope;
- belladonna;
- belena and others
Most nightshade is wild.
Medicinal plants of the nightshade family
Due to the high content of alkaloids, most wild-growing members of the family are poisonous. However, the poison is successfully used in pharmacology in small concentrations. An example of medicinal poisonous plants:
- belladonna;
- tobacco;
- black bleached;
- mandrake;
- dope;
- scopolia;
- bittersweet nightshade;
- black nightshade;
- bird nightshade.
Not poisonous:
- peppers.
The resulting alkaloids (hyoscyamine, scopolamine, atropine) are used to treat gastrointestinal diseases, peptic ulcer disease, diseases of the urinary system, asthma, cholecystitis. In folk medicine, tincture and decoction of the root, powder from dried leaves are used.
Poisonous nightshade plants
Plants differ in the degree of toxicity of the poison and the place of its concentration. The most toxic nightshade nights are listed below.
Belladonna
Popular names: Raging Berry and Sleepy Foolishness. Fruits - shiny black berries containing a large concentration of poison. The lethal dose for children is 3 berries. For adults - from 10.
Anesthetizes and relieves spasms. Roots and leaves are used in dried or fresh form. In official medicine, the plant is a part of tablets and tinctures, in folk medicine, decoctions and compresses are made from it. Belladonna helps with stomach diseases, cholecystitis, Parkinson's disease.
Interesting! The genus Belle (lat. Atropa), to which the belladonna belongs, got its name in honor of the ancient Greek goddess of the inevitability of the death of Atropa.
Mandrake
The mysterious plant was immortalized in medieval European myths. There were legends that this plant can scream and with its scream can kill a living creature. It has an unusual shape - its roots strongly resemble a human figure. They contain scopolamine - another type of alkaloids that is used in modern pharmacology.
Mandrake root
Datura ordinary
A genus of annual herbs that is part of the nightshade family. Poisonous medicinal plant. Hyoscinamine is extracted from the leaves for anti-asthma drugs, and the seeds are the source of atropine, which is used in the treatment of diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, liver, gall bladder and urinary system. The cause of the dope is harmful - poison, which has hallucinogenic properties. It is found in stems, roots and seeds.
Black belena
Used as a pill for airborne and seasickness. Rhizomes and leaf extracts are used to treat stomach ulcers, liver diseases, and vision problems. All parts of the plant are poisonous: flowers, seeds, stems, leaves, roots. The peak of toxicity is the end of spring.
Cultivated plants of the nightshade family
The family can be divided into wild and cultivated plants. Cultured from the wild using scientific methods: selection, genetic engineering, the creation of hybrids. What relates to cultural nightshade:
- potatoes;
- eggplant;
- Tomatoes
- capsicum;
- smoking tobacco.
They have long been grown by man for food, animal feed, medicine, cosmetics, cigars and cigarettes.
Solanaceae are plants that people encounter daily. Wild and cultivated members of the family benefit from the composition of medicines and food, and decorative species transform the home.
