Red nightshade. Nightshade: types, composition, properties, use, contraindications, recipes. Bittersweet nightshade - beneficial properties and uses
Solanum dulcamara
Poisonous!
Family - Solanaceae - Solanaceae.
Parts Used - upper part escape.
Popular name - wolfberry, viper berries, bear berries, dog berries, magpie berries, helminthic.
Pharmaceutical name - nightshade stems - Dulcamara stipes (formerly: Stipites Dulcamar a).
Botanical description
Bittersweet nightshade is a perennial climbing graceful subshrub, woody below, herbaceous above, 30-180 cm high with a creeping woody tuberculate rhizome. Stems with a hollow core, long, sinuous, angular, branched, climbing, woody in the lower part, glabrous or slightly pubescent.
The leaves usually have 2 lobes, oblong-ovate, pointed, often heart-shaped at the base or have two small oblong lobes. Upper leaves often tripartite or dissected. Fresh leaves make noise bad smell. Cymose inflorescences are paniculate, forked at the base, on long peduncles.
The fruit is juicy red berries, ovoid or ellipsoidal in shape, 1-3cm long. Blooms from June to August. The plant is shade-tolerant.
Violet with yellow conical anthers of the stamens, bisexual, regular, with a double perianth. The calyx is five-toothed, small, saucer-shaped. The corolla is fused-petalled, purple, rarely white or pink, wheel-shaped, with a folded five-dissected limb (12-18 mm in diameter).
There are 5 stamens, the anthers are narrow, fused into a cone-shaped tube around the style. One pistil, superior ovary, one style with a capitate stigma.
It grows in damp thickets of bushes and floodplain meadows, along the banks of rivers and ponds, near lakes and swamps. Distributed in the European part of Russia, Western and Eastern Siberia, in Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus and Central Asia.
Active ingredients
Steroids, alkaloids, glycosidic bitters, saponins, tannins, phenolcarboxylic acids, flavonoids, higher aliphatic hydrocarbons, higher fatty acids.
Collection and preparation
The grassy tops of the stems are collected at the beginning or during flowering, as well as 1-3 year old stems of bittersweet nightshade, flowers and, finally, berries. The stems are harvested in the fall, after the leaves have fallen or early spring, before the buds open. Dry outdoors in the shade, also in ventilated areas, the stems are cut into pieces 10 - 15 cm. Store separately in boxes lined with paper, like a poisonous plant.
Use in homeopathy
The raw material for homeopathic preparations from nightshade is shoots collected during flowering. The essence is prepared from fresh raw materials and used for influenza, hives, rheumatism, and convulsions.
Healing effect and application
It is astringent, diuretic, choleretic, expectorant, blood purifying, anti-inflammatory, analgesic and sedative. nervous system action.
Traditional medicine uses young herbaceous shoots with leaves for various skin diseases, urticaria, rheumatism, convulsions, bronchial asthma, colds, inflammation of the bladder, diarrhea, irregular menstruation, as a wound-healing and anthelmintic. The leaves are used for dropsy, whooping cough, externally for scrofula and rheumatism, the berries for sexually transmitted diseases, epilepsy, migraine attacks, and a decoction of flowers for pulmonary diseases.
Recipes
- Decoction. Pour 15g of dry crushed stems into 400ml of boiling water, simmer over low heat for 30 minutes and let steep for 15 minutes. Strain and take 2 glasses in the morning and evening, first with milk, then without milk (Venereal diseases - gonorrhea, syphilis). A decoction of the stems can also be used externally in the form of lotions, compresses, rinses, as well as for itchy rashes, scabs on the head, malignant scabies, rashes of venereal origin, in the treatment of malignant ulcers of scrofulous, venereal and scurvy origin, bone abscesses.
- Infusion. Brew 1 teaspoon of chopped stems with leaves and flowers with 2 cups of boiling water and let it brew in a sealed container in a warm place for 4 hours, stirring occasionally. Strain and take 1 tablespoon 3-4 times a day 30 minutes before meals. ( Colds, inflammation of the middle ear, neuralgia, diarrhea, diseases of the bladder and urinary tract. And also for dropsy, shortness of breath, sciatica, itchy rashes, lichen, boils, purulent skin lesions).
Contraindications
The leaves and berries of bittersweet nightshade are poisonous and should only be treated with them under medical supervision.
Doctor of Agricultural Sciences, Professor of the department. Vegetable Growing RGAU-Moscow Agricultural Academy named after K.A. Timiryazeva
Just as it is not clear from the name of a plant whether it is sweet or bitter, it is also impossible to say unambiguously whether it is harmful or beneficial. Let's try to figure this out.
Let's start with what it is. Folk names are generally dissonant and do not evoke much respect for this plant: privet berries, wolf berries, helminthic, viper grass. But there are also names that suggest its medicinal properties: scrofula, mother grass.
Temperate liana
Nightshade bittersweet (Solanum dulcamara) belongs to the nightshade family and is distributed in temperate and subtropical regions of Europe, North Africa, East and West Asia and North America. In our country, it can be found throughout the European part of Russia (except for the far north, Trans-Volga and Lower Volga regions), in the Caucasus, in the south of Western and Eastern Siberia. The plant prefers rich and fertile soils in damp, swampy forests, along the banks of rivers and lakes, forest edges, and among willow trees.
The life form of the plant is a subshrub, but some authors consider it a liana. The stems are climbing, up to 5 m long, with a woody lower part. The leaves are alternate, oblong-ovate, entire, sometimes with ears at the base. The flowers are purple, reminiscent of potato flowers, collected in groups of 8-18 in almost corymbose drooping inflorescences. The fruits are juicy, multi-seeded, ovoid, bright red berries. Blooms from May to September. The fruits ripen in July-September.
Active ingredients
Steroidal alkaloids characteristic of the nightshade genus are also present in bittersweet nightshade. The steroid glycosides of nightshade are dominated by compounds with 3-4 sugar residues. Steroid glycosides are contained in the above-ground parts of the plant (0.3-0.6%), mainly in leaves (more than 1%), flowers and fruits; in stems they are present in minimum quantity. The alkaloid content in fruits reaches 0.3-0.7%.
The many steroidal alkaloids of the nightshade genus are divided into two groups, according to their aglycone:
- Spirosolans (solasadine and tomatidine)
- Solanidins (solanine, hakonine).
Bittersweet nightshade contains spirosolans and is divided into 3 chemotypes:
- Eastern European - Tomatine predominates.
- Western European - soladulcidin (5,6-dihydrosolasodine) predominates.
- The solasodine type is quite rare.
Steroidal saponins consist of the aglycones yamogenin, tigogenin and diosgenin with two sugars. Sugar chains can be found in different positions in the molecule.
Flavonoids were found in the leaves and flowers of this plant: quercetin, kaempferol, 3-glucoside and 3-rhamnosylglucoside of kaempferol, triterpenoids (obtusifoliol, cycloeucalenol), sterols (sitosterol, campesterol), phenolcarboxylic acids, higher aliphatic alcohols.
Action of steroidal alcohologlycosides
They exhibit an effect characteristic of saponins, but to a weaker extent. Form with sterols cell membranes complexes and thereby can dissolve the membranes of animal and plant cells. Therefore, cytotoxic and hemolytic effects occur.
Special studies of the action of steroid glycosides and their aglycones have shown:
- Suppression of the biotransformation of barbiturates and prolongation of sleep in experimental animals (solanine).
- Positive inotropic effect on isolated frog heart (tomatine, a-solanine, solanidine).
- Preventing anaphylactic shock in guinea pigs. Solasodine has been shown to have a cortisone-like effect.
- Anti-inflammatory effect in rats with kaolin arthritis.
- Reduced permeability of vascular walls.
- Adrenal hypertrophy with long-term use (weaker than cortisone).
Solasodine can serve as a raw material for the production of steroid hormones. For these purposes they use nightshade lobed (Solanum laciniatum), nightshade bordered (Solanum marginatum), Solanum khasium. At high dosages they act like saponins.
Hazardous properties and first aid
Green berries contain up to 2% steroid glycosides. Ripe fruits contain much less of them. But old literature describes cases of fatal poisoning even from red fruits.
Poisoning most often occurs when eating (especially by children) attractive-looking red berries. Unlike black nightshade, red nightshade fruits do not lose their poisonous properties when ripe. There are also cases of poisoning of careless lovers of herbal medicine.
Symptoms of nightshade poisoning are similar to green potato poisoning. In case of overdose, the glycosides contained in nightshade irritate the gastrointestinal tract, cause vomiting, and when absorbed and released into the blood, cause hemolysis of red blood cells, nephritis, and affect the nervous system.
Symptoms appear quite quickly, within a few hours. First, a state of stupor is observed, an uneven, shaky gait, dilated pupils, and arrhythmia. Then pain in the stomach and intestines, diarrhea, and vomiting appear.
In case of poisoning, it is necessary to perform a gastric lavage with a suspension of activated carbon (30 g per 0.5-1 liter of water) or a 0.1% solution of potassium permanganate. And in case of severe poisoning, it is necessary to urgently call a doctor, since you will need injections of camphor, cordiamine, caffeine sodium benzoate, as well as droppers of isotonic sodium chloride, which is quite problematic to do at home.
Bittersweet nightshade as a medicinal plant
Bittersweet nightshade has long been used medicinally. Mentions of him are found in Hippocrates and Galen.
In the Middle Ages in Europe, it was considered a remedy for evil elves - fairy-tale creatures that inhabited forests and meadows. In the old German herbalists it is called Alfenrkraut - the herb of the elves. Johannes Schroeder writes in his herbalism in 1693 that Alfenrkraut should be placed in the cradle of children against the evil eye (witchcraft). And what helps people will also work for animals. Hieronymus Bock, in his 1587 herbal book, mentions that shepherds put a necklace of this plant on their cattle to prevent harm from happening to the animals.
In 1835, the famous Odessa doctor A. Nelyubin reported on the use of bittersweet nightshade stems in the treatment of ulcers of scrofulous, scurvy and venereal origin. He also recommended nightshade for many nervous diseases - hypochondria, hysteria, convulsions. In Siberia, they drank an infusion of nightshade and washed themselves with the infusion from melancholy.
German folk medicine recommends the tincture as a “blood purifier” for urticaria, lichen, boils, ulcers, as well as for diseases of the bladder and urinary tract. R.F. Weiss, a classic of German herbal medicine and the author of numerous textbooks, recommends nightshade as a strong remedy for “dyscrasia” and for skin diseases associated with metabolic disorders.
In French folk medicine The plant was used for coughs, bronchitis, bronchial asthma, and also as a diuretic.
In folk medicine, nightshade is used for increased sexual excitability, as an antiaphrodisiac, as well as for inflammation of the bladder and cystourethritis.
The daily dose should be 1-3 g of raw material (herbs). You cannot use only the leaves, as they contain much more active ingredients. Just 4 g of leaves can cause severe poisoning.
For external use, make an infusion or decoction from 1-2 g of raw material in 250 ml of water. Porridge from leaves and fruits was previously used as an external remedy for burns.
Infusion Nightshade is prepared from 3 g of herb (1 teaspoon) and 0.5 liters of boiling water, left for 1 hour, filtered. Take 30 ml 3 times a day.
A classic antiscrofulous remedy is “Averin tea” - a collection consisting of 4 parts tricolor violet herb, 4 parts succession herb and 1 part nightshade herb. To prepare it, 1 tbsp. Brew a spoonful of the mixture in 1 glass of boiling water, leave for 1-2 hours, filter and take 1 tbsp. spoon 3-4 times a day.
An alcoholic tincture of young shoots, prepared from 1 part raw material and 10 parts vodka, is infused for two weeks and taken 10 drops 2-3 times a day.
Bittersweet nightshade is also included in the German Pharmacopoeia. It contains a corresponding article with requirements for raw materials from it. The German Commission E, which develops the composition and recommendations for the use of medicinal plant materials, offers bittersweet nightshade as a remedy for eczema in the form of a ready-made pharmacy tincture, which is an alcohol extract in a ratio of 1:5. The dosage is 4-5 times a day, 30-40 drops for adults and half for children. In addition, nightshade is included in a number of other drugs: Arthrosetten, Arthrisan.
Nightshade in homeopathy
The raw material for homeopathic preparations from nightshade is shoots collected during flowering. The essence is prepared from fresh raw materials.
Symptoms of Dulcamara include pressing or boring pain in the head with a feeling of heaviness and stupefaction, pain in the frontal and temporal parts, especially at noon and in the evening, dizziness, twitching of the lips and eyelids. Pain in the upper extremities, sweaty palms, tearing pain in the joints of the lower extremities, feet, decreasing when walking. Digestive disorders: heartburn, nausea, bloating, mucous diarrhea with abdominal cramps. It is prescribed for herpes zoster, impetigo, urticaria, myalgia, lumbodynia, neuralgia, bronchial asthma and a number of other diseases. Dulcamara D2-D3 is used for albuminuria.
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12.07.2019
Bittersweet nightshade (lat. ) is a perennial subshrub of the Solanaceae family ( Solanaceae).
The name of the plant is associated with its fruits, which are initially green in color, then acquire a yellowish tint and become bright red when ripe. If you bite into a ripe nightshade berry, its taste will be sweet at first, but then bitterness will appear.
Among the popular names of the plant, the most popular are privet berries, wolf berries, worm grass, viper grass, scrofula, mother grass.
Bittersweet nightshade is widespread in temperate and subtropical regions. It can be found on the territory of the Eurasian continent (Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, Russia), in some countries of Asia and North Africa, it was introduced and was able to acclimatize in North America.
Nightshade is a tenacious plant, shade-tolerant, but prefers fertile and moist soils. For this reason, it can most often be found in damp and marshy places, in flooded meadows, near the shores of freshwater bodies of water, on forest edges, among willow trees, and in thickets of bushes.
The plant is poisonous. Unlike black nightshade, the ripe bright red berries of bittersweet nightshade do not lose their toxicity when ripe. In ancient tomes there are repeated descriptions of poisoning of people, leading to death.
The fact is that the berries and leaves of this plant contain toxic substances dulcamarin and solanine, which are steroidal glycosides. Green fruits contain up to 2% glycosides (in ripe berries their amount is slightly less).
Unfortunately, poisoning from nightshade fruits is most common among children these days.
Toxic substances can cause stomach pain, loss of coordination, vomiting, diarrhea, arrhythmia and increased heart rate in people. Typically, the symptoms of poisoning from nightshade berries resemble poisoning from green potato tubers. In this case, pupil dilation can be observed (similar to the effect of atropine).
Animals and birds often suffer from eating these berries.
Useful properties of the plant
Sweet and sour nightshade is widely used in homeopathy and traditional medicine. The first mentions of the healing and healing properties of this plant are found in the ancient Greek healer and philosopher Hippocrates, as well as in his colleague the ancient Roman healer Galen.
In some countries, and in particular in Germany, bittersweet nightshade is included in the list of pharmacopoeial plants and is used as a natural raw material in the production of medicines, including to combat eczema.
Gardeners and gardeners use an infusion of nightshade leaves to combat insect larvae and caterpillars. This natural insecticide has a negative effect on pests.
IN ancient times bittersweet nightshade was used to tan the hides of killed animals because its leaves and stems contain large number tannins (about 11%).
Description of the plant
Reproduction of bittersweet nightshade is seed and vegetative, using rhizomes.
The plant can reach from 30 to 180 centimeters in height. Its root is woody, sinuous, with growths.
Stems are angular, climbing, flexible, branched, slightly pubescent or glabrous. At the base they have gray layered wrinkled bark and can reach 2.5 centimeters or more in diameter.
The leaves are large, alternate, ovoid, covered with sparse hairs on the upper and lower sides. Moreover, in the lower part of the plant they are heart-shaped, and in the upper part they are dissected, with a lanceolate apical lobe.
Nightshade blooms in May and blooms until August inclusive. Its corymbose extra-axillary inflorescences are placed on long peduncles of drooping paniculate shape and reach from 2 to 5 centimeters in length.
The corolla is colored pinkish, violet, lilac, rarely white and can reach 18 millimeters in diameter.
The calyx of the flower is fused and contains five sharp teeth.
The nightshade fruit is a juicy, elliptical, pendulous berry up to one centimeter long. The berries begin to ripen in July, and this process continues until September.
The seeds are flat, about 2 millimeters in diameter.
During the flowering and fruiting period, bittersweet nightshade has an attractive decorative appearance, so it is often used in landscape design For vertical gardening gazebos and fences. It should be remembered that the foliage young plant has an unpleasant odor.
Composition and nutrients
The berries and aerial parts of nightshade contain a large number of alkaloids, steroids, flavonoids, as well as fatty oils and organic acids.
Carotene, starch, protein substances, and many macro and microelements were found in the leaves of the plant.
Medicinal properties of the plant
In folk medicine, decoctions and infusions of nightshade shoots and leaves are used to treat headaches, rheumatism, gout, skin diseases and eczema.
Recipe:
Nightshade infusion is prepared as follows: one teaspoon of dry or fresh leaves must be poured with 0.5 liters of boiling water, and then left for one hour, after which the solution should be strained. Take 30 milliliters orally three times a day.
When using this drug, you should remember that bittersweet nightshade is poisonous plant, so use it as remedy should be used carefully and always under the supervision of a doctor.
It is advisable to collect plants during flowering, with the herbaceous tops of the stems entering the plant.
The resulting raw materials are dried on fresh air(in the shade) or in a dry and well-ventilated area, turning and stirring regularly.
Ways to control weeds
Bittersweet nightshade may pose a threat to cultivated plants, infecting crops on arable land.
To fight on small areas Conventional hand weeding or mulching of beds is used.
In fields, post-emergence herbicides are commonly used to protect crop plants.
There are many types of nightshades known. They are decorative, delighting others with their bright green foliage, and growing in nature as weeds. People collect a beautiful fruit and do not know whether it is healthy or not. To do this, we provide below a description of the characteristics of the most common types of nightshade - bittersweet, black, indoor.
Bittersweet nightshade is a creeping shrub
Bittersweet nightshade is a climbing perennial that belongs to the nightshade family. It is a creeping shrub that clings to a row of plants and rises. The stem grows up to one and a half centimeters, or even higher, in height. The flower of this species is large, bright, purple in color and resembles a potato inflorescence.
Nightshade is bittersweet, begins to bloom in the second ten days of June and ends at the end of August. The fruit is elongated, red in color, tastes sweet with a bitter aftertaste, because of this property it is called bittersweet.
Uses of nightshade
Bittersweet nightshade has poisonous and medicinal effects. It lives on moist soil, near water bodies, on lawns, vegetable gardens and ravines. The stems have beneficial properties and are used as an anti-inflammatory agent for respiratory diseases.
In homeopathy, young shoots with leaves are used to treat skin, infectious diseases. In pharmacology, the perennial fruit is used little. It is used to relieve migraine attacks, epilepsy, and sexually transmitted diseases.
To harvest nightshade, young shoots from the tops of the branches are collected when the plant is in bloom. It is dried in the shade and separately from other herbs, due to its poisonous properties. Bittersweet nightshade has healing properties, this is clear from its composition.
Young shoots with nightshade leaves are used in homeopathy
The perennial has useful components, such as steroids, alkaloids, bitterness, as well as glycosides and saponins. It has tannins and contains flavonoids and fatty acids. Below is a description of the medicinal properties of the perennial:
- It has a diuretic, choleretic effect. It has expectorant and astringent properties.
- Relieves inflammation.
- Anesthetizes and soothes.
- Has an anthelmintic effect.
We can list a number of diseases for the treatment of which preparations of this type of nightshade are used:
- skin diseases ( different types rashes, eczema, lichen);
- immune diseases (rheumatism, psoriasis);
- genitourinary system ( inflammatory processes bladder, pyelonephritis, prostatitis);
- menstrual irregularities;
- inflammation of the respiratory tract.
Tinctures from the leaves are used for ailments such as dropsy, jaundice and help treat whooping cough.
There are many types of nightshades, but the most commonly consumed nightshade is bittersweet nightshade. Its qualities are similar to black nightshade.
Black nightshade is an annual plant.
Black nightshade is an annual plant, about a meter high, with a branched and erect stem. You can see the black species up close highways, in places where garbage accumulates or in country houses. The soil where it grows is loose and moist. The plant blooms and bears fruit from May to mid-August. The berry produced by black nightshade large quantities, has a dark purple or even black color. The fruit is found in yellow, green, and white colors. It contains a lot of sugar and is a great source of vitamin C.
Useful properties
All components of black nightshade have poisonous properties except for ripened berries. They taste pleasant and can be eaten raw or cooked. Due to the fact that the black fruit is not popular, people rarely collect it. But in countries such as France, Portugal, Türkiye, this annual plant is used in pharmacology.
Black nightshade is widely used in cooking. The ripe fruit is used for jam and as a pie filling. The berry also serves as a wonderful food coloring.
The stems and leaves of the plant have healing properties and are rich in vitamins. Like other types, it contains tannins, citric and organic acids. The black type of nightshade contains toxic substances, these include the bitter glycoside dulcarine, glycoalkaloids, and solanine, solacein.
Like the previous species, black is successfully used in alternative medicine. This wonderful plant has a calming effect and helps with diseases:
- acute violent insanity;
- high excitability in women;
- convulsions, epileptic seizures;
- spasms of the gastrointestinal tract, genitourinary system;
- in gynecology, the black species is also used to restore the menstrual cycle;
- Black burnt berry has an excellent anthelmintic effect.
There are many types of nightshades. Many of them grow like weeds, some serve beautiful decor for home and garden. Unlike bittersweet and black nightshades, pepper nightshade is bred at home.
Is indoor nightshade beneficial or not?
This ornamental plant decorates the interior and creates comfort in the house. Nightshade blooms in the summer, and then pleases the eye with fruits of green and orange or red. As winter approaches, he needs rest.
For beginning flower lovers, this plant is suitable because it is unpretentious, but still the leaves need constant spraying and crown formation. It is better to place indoor nightshade in places with good lighting, and provide it with abundant watering with appropriate humidity in the room. The room has the same medicinal properties, like the plant eucalyptus, alocasia.
It should be remembered that this species is poisonous. If you decide to grow it at home, the pot should be in hard to reach place for children.
Ornamental plant indoor nightshade
Contraindications to the use of nightshades
Plants of the nightshade family are used with caution for diseases internal organs, these include liver and pancreas diseases, intestinal disorders, namely a tendency to diarrhea. The main contraindication is pregnancy.
Nightshade poisoning
Green unripe berries contain about 2 percent steroid glycosides. When it turns red and ripens, the amount of toxic substances decreases. But there is a description of cases of poisoning by ripe red fruits, with fatal consequences. Inexperienced people and especially children are attracted to nightshade by the bright red color of the berries.
If the fruit of the black nightshade, when ripened, loses its poisonous properties, then the red one retains them. By consuming nightshade fruit in large quantities, an overdose of the glycosides contained in it can occur. Toxic substances entering the gastrointestinal tract cause irritation of the mucous membrane. When toxins are absorbed into the blood, they have a destructive effect on the nervous system. Poisoning occurs quickly with the manifestation of symptoms:
- Stunned state.
- Coordination of movements is impaired.
- Dilated pupils, arrhythmia.
- It's hard to breathe.
- Severe pain in the gastrointestinal tract.
- Sharp vomiting, followed by diarrhea.
The first aid is gastric lavage activated carbon(dilute 30 grams in 0.5-1 liter of water) or 0.1 percent solution of potassium permanganate. If the victim's condition is serious, to provide emergency care you need to call an ambulance.
If you love herbal remedies, when preparing, use plants that you are confident in. There is a description of the facts that many nightshades have poisonous qualities if consumed in large quantities. The fruit of black nightshade must be collected in a ripe state, and all other parts of the plant must be used for their intended purpose.
- Where does he live?
- What toxic substances does it contain?
Subshrub with a long climbing stem (up to 2 m, and in favorable conditions and more), with a woody base. The leaves are ovate-pointed. The flowers are purple, in drooping racemes. Blooms from late May to September. The fruits are red, bittersweet berries, ripen in June - October.
Distributed in the European part of Russia, the Caucasus, Siberia and Far East along the banks of reservoirs, damp places, among bushes. Often found in populated areas, on the outskirts of villages, between vegetable gardens, and on garbage heaps. Often bittersweet nightshade is grown on personal plots, as an ornamental vine. Bittersweet nightshade is often grown in garden plots as an ornamental vine.
Popularly, bittersweet nightshade, for its red berries, is also called red to distinguish it from black nightshade.
The leaves, stem and fruits of nightshade are poisonous. As the fruits ripen, the toxic properties of the fruits of bittersweet nightshade, unlike black nightshade, do not disappear, since in addition to the poisonous glycoalkaloid solanine, which disappears when the berries ripen, there are also other toxic substances, in particular solidulcine and dulcamarin.
At the end of the last winter, which was extremely cold and long in our area, I watched as the berries of the bittersweet nightshade, usually ignored by birds, were pecked by hungry waxwings. They ate these bright red berries, visible from afar, at the very last resort, when all the available food was found and safely eaten, and the snow stubbornly refused to melt and open the grass litter with seeds and berries preserved from the fall.
They ate little by little, eating a single bush with several bunches of berries for more than a week. Having pecked at several fruits, the waxwings sat for a long time, drowsy, often right on the snow, letting me get very close, and only when there was a meter and a half left before them, they flew away heavily.
Animals don't eat bittersweet either. nightshade for food. But hungry livestock can be poisoned by nightshade growing near the fence of the pens, where all other grass has been trampled.
Children who are tempted by the berries are usually poisoned by red nightshade. Unripe berries are more toxic and you only need to try a few pieces for symptoms of poisoning to appear. Ripe berries not so poisonous, beautiful and sweet (the bitter taste appears only when they are chewed well), therefore they are more insidious.
Symptoms of nightshade poisoning bittersweet are the same as in case of poisoning with other plants containing solanine and similar glycoalkaloids - abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, depression of motor and mental activity, difficulty breathing, cardiovascular failure. First aid is gastric lavage.
Nightshade bittersweet is medicinal plant, used in folk medicine to treat many diseases. But use nightshade in medicinal purposes, due to its toxicity, must be used with caution.
