If you have listened to the song of 9nice, you would have heard about gegemu, otherwise known in science circles as Datura, which he mentioned in 'Gbamu Gbamu' as being deadly.Scientists in fact have cautioned on the use of Datura, a widely used plant with hallucinogenic properties, in the preparation of local medicines and as a substitute for marijuana, saying it could cause memory loss and affect verbal communication.In their assessment of the common plant in rats under laboratory conditions, the scientists found that this plant that young people add the decoction of its leaves or fruit to their drinks in order to get 'high,' causes alterations in the brain's frontal cortex. The brain frontal cortex is the part of the brain that is responsible for responses relating to memory, emotions, reasoning, judgment, planning, and verbal communication.Datura, one of the drugs of abuse among young people, is commonly called sausage tree and in Yoruba referred to as gegemu or apikan.Datura metel is one of the most interesting plants with hallucinogenic properties. Hallucination is sensory experience of something that does not exist outside mind. It may involve distorted sensory perception so that things look sound, smell, or feel differently from the way they are. Although typically associated with psychiatric disorder, the hallucinatory experience has a wide range of causes that may include but not limited to the following: neurological insult, seizure and sleep disorders, drug reaction, substance abuse, grief, stress as well as metabolic, endocrine and infectious diseases.The plant is used for the treatment of asthma, depression, motion sickness and analgesic. The watery extract of the leaves is applied around the eyes for the treatment of cataract. In addition, the contents of the Datura plant have been employed in treating clinical conditions relating to the nervous system as well as other systems such as Parkinson's disease, paralysis, sleeping disorders, epilepsy, headache, asthma, tuberculosis, breast cancer, arthritis, rheumatism, hemorrhoids, boils, hair loss, ringworm and depression of sexual desire. In a book, A Textbook of Medicinal Plants from Nigeria, by Tolu Odugbemi, extracts of Datura metel (gegemu) when soaked in water for about 12 hours has been advocated to rid farms of termites; also the aqueous extracts are put in dug holes on farm grounds to get rid of termites. The study titled, 'Some effects of the aqueous leaf extract of Datura metel on the frontal cortex of adult Wistar rats (Rattus norvegicus)', was carried out by Damilare A. Adekomi, A.A. Tijani, O.K. Ghazal, all from the Department of Human Anatomy, Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Ilorin. It was published in the 2010 issue of the European Journal of Anatomy.The researchers, who noted that the tested animals were eating less and had a reduction in their weight over the period of time they were given extract of Datura metel leaves, suggested that the plant usage could have a significant impact on health.According to them, a reduction in body weight 'reflected the possible changes in function of the organs that are regulated by the nervous system and metabolic activities.'Although the plant has been reported to have many beneficial and medicinal properties, the scientists stated that the noted side effects (such as hallucinations, psychiatric derangement, disorientation with agitated behaviour, etc.) could have been a result of the insults of the chemical components of the plant to the cells of the nervous system. The researchers wrote: 'Considering some of the deleterious effects of Datura metel leaf extracts on the body weight and the cellular components of the frontal cortex in rats, herbal practitioners and drug abusers (particularly young people) should be properly educated about the use of the plant, in particular in view of the negative impact it has on body weight and the fontal cortex in the extract-treated animals in this study.
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