Description about Solanum seaforthianum - Extra pharmacopoieal drug.

1. Solanum
seaforthianum Andrews.
Presented By- Dr. Aditi Gandhi
Dept. of Dravya Guna, SDMCAH, Hassan
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2. Introduction
• Anukta Dravya
• Genus Solanum : Latin word – solamen meaning
comfort, solace or soothing in ref to the sedative
or healing effect.
• Species S. seaforthianum take its species epithet
from “Lord Seaforth” – Francis Humberston
Mackenzie, a governor of Barbados from 1801 – 1806,
British politician, soldier, and botanist.
• In 1794 : Seaforth was elected a Fellow of the
Royal Society for his contribution to botany.
• The sp. Seaforthia was named after him.
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3. Vernacular names
• Eng- Brazilian nightshade, Potato
creeper, Climbing nightshade,
Deadly nightshade, St. Vincent
Lilac, Italian jasmine, star potato
vine
• Kannada – Balli sunde
• Malayalam – Thoongumasu
{Site : Flora of Peninsular India,
keralaplants.in}
• Spanish – jazmin de italia
• Puerto rico – false belladona
Synonym
• Solanum botryophorum
• S. cirrhosum
• S. kerri
• S. prunifolium
• S. venustum
• S. salignum
• S. seaforthianum var. disjunctum
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4. Distribution
• A weed of untended areas with fertile soils.
• Karnataka: Chikmaglur, Coorg, Hassan, Mysore, Shimoga
• Andhra Pradesh : Kadapa, Kurnool, Chitoor, Prakasam dist.
• Kerala : Idukki, Kannur, Palakkad, Thiruvananthapuram
• Tamil Nadu : Dharmapuri, Dindigul, Nilgiri, Salem, Tiruvanamali
{Flora of Tamil Nadu Vol. 2}
• Native : Brazil , Now widely naturalized.
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5. Morphology
• Perennial woody vine with climbing stems, often covering fences/
shrubs, reaching 5m in height.
• Stems : terate, glabrous, green, sparsely pubescent.
• Leaves : simple (appears compound) – more often pinnatifid or pinnately
lobed with up to 4 pairs of leaflets, elliptic to broadly triangular in
outline, membranous,
the upper surfaces glabrous or with tiny simple uniseriate trichomes on
the veins and margins,
the lower surfaces glabrous; base acute, truncate or slightly cordate,
occasionally oblique and asymmetric; margins commonly entire,
apex acute to acuminate; petioles 1-4 cm long.
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6. Leaf
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7. Inflorescences terminal, later lateral, to 25 or more cm long, with many open,
divaricate branches, with up to 100 or more flowers, glabrous;
pedicels 0.8-1.4 cm,
Flowers all perfect, 5-merous. Buds globose
Calyx tube approximately 0.5 mm, flattened and open
Corolla : violet or pale violet, stellate-rotate, lobed ½ to 2/3rd of the way to the
base, spreading or slightly cupped at anthesis(flowering period of a plant from the
opening of the flower bud), densely & minutely pubescent on the tips & margins;
free portion of filaments markedly unequal, the longest filament 2-3 mm,
glabrous;
anthers occasionally 1 anther slightly larger, yellow ;
ovary glabrous; style 7-10 mm long, stigma capitate.
Fruit : a globose berry, 0.8-1.4 cm in diameter, bright shiny red when ripe,
glabrous, the pericarp thin;
Seeds 4-20 per berry, 4-4.5 x 2.5-3 mm, flattened-reniform, pale yellowish tan,
the surfaces minutely pitted (Knapp, 2010).
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11. Reproduction and Dispersal
• This sp. reproduces mainly by seed, which are most often dispersed
by birds and other animals that eat the fleshy fruit.
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12. Uses
• Widely commercialized as a garden ornamental plant.
• The sp. Has become widely naturalized outside its native range and is
an Invasive species in Australia, Africa, Indochina – Cambodia, Laos,
Myanmar, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, India, : choking the Native
vegetation and poisoning the livestock.
• No medicinal property found !
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13. • Ethno medicinal information from tribal people of Sirumalai hills of
Western Ghats of Tamil Nadu revealed that extract of this plants used
by Paliyan tribe as a remedy for skin diseases and for the treatment of
boils.
There is however, no report on the antibacterial activity of Solanum
seaforthianum in the literature.
https://www.imedpub.com/articles/in-vitro-growth-inhibition-of-
pathogenic-bacteria-by-solanum-seaforthianum-l.pdf
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15. Other impacts
• Weed
• Its berries are reported to be poisonous to
poultry, pigs, cattle, sheep and children.
• It has been included in the Global Invasive
Species Database (GISD, 2008)
• It has been listed as a noxious weed in South
Africa.
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16. References
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• Internet :
1. Wikipedia
2. Flora of India
3. Indiabiodiversity.org (synonyms,
distribution)
4. Efloraofindia.com
5. cabi.org – ‘Centre of Agriculture and
Biosciences International’ - Invasive Species
Compendium (ISC)
6. Google images
7. Google scholar

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