Editing Datura stramonium (section)

===Traditional medicine===
[[File:Datura str tat5.JPG|''D. stramonium'' var. ''tatula'', flower (front)|thumb|right]]

One of the primary active agents in ''Datura'' is [[atropine]], which has been used in [[traditional medicine]] and for recreation over centuries.<ref name=cabi/><ref name=Glatstein/> The leaves are generally smoked, either in a cigarette or a pipe.

During the late 18th century, James Anderson, the English Physician General of the [[East India Company]], learned of the practice and popularized it in Europe.<ref>{{cite book |author=Barceloux, Donald G. |chapter=Cáscara |title=Medical Toxicology of Natural Substances: Foods, Fungi, Medicinal Herbs, Plants, and Venomous Animals |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-118-38276-9 |page=1877 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aTTBPedwFfAC&pg=PT1877}}</ref><ref name="Pennachio-2010-p6">{{Cite book |author=Pennachio, Marcello |title=Uses and Abuses of Plant-Derived Smoke: Its Ethnobotany As Hallucinogen, Perfume, Incense, and Medicine |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-19-537001-0 |page=6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pr9fgQIr5LkC&pg=PA6 |display-authors=etal}}</ref> The Chinese also used it as a form of [[anesthesia]] during surgery.<ref name="Nellis-1997-p238">{{Cite book|author=Nellis, David W. |title=Poisonous Plants and Animals of Florida and the Caribbean |publisher=Pineapple Press |year=1997 |isbn=978-1-56164-111-6 |page=238 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C8xJE2NfQpIC&pg=PA238}}</ref>