Dan's Plant

Nightshade was a grave threat to both sides during the Civil War. The plant has small white flowers with five petals, sepals, stamens, and pistills that ripen into black berries. The green, unripe, berries and follage contain dangerous levals of a alkalord, solanie. The black berries are still poisionious under most circumstances. Henceforth I give you a (considered usless by my group) example of the threat of nightshade During the Civil War.

Bob, the camp cook, was walking along a road when he saw big plants with green and black berries. Delighted, Bob, after a few hours of work has completly stripped all the plants of their berries and some of their most decorative follage for the higher officers. Bob, thinking he'll cook the best meal the guys ever tasted, figures everyone will get a big handfull of berries. They do. Almost everyone, the next day, is dead.

Here are pictures of nightshade.




Nightshade plant pictures were found at these websites:
http://www.ansci.cornell.edu/plants/nightshade.html
For plants 2 and 3

http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/croplive/cropprot/weedguid/nightsha.html
For plant 1
The plants hardly possible uses during the Civil War:

" Truth serum ? " How do they get the drug outta' the plant ? Nobody knows !!!

"Scopolamine's effect on the central nervous system also makes it useful as a "truth serum," by means of which uncooperative persons may be forced to answer questions. This method of interrogation is common in popular fiction, but cannot be used legally in the United States without consent, and because evidence so obtained is unreliable, it is often inadmissible in court. "

" Eye dialator ? " . . . Mabey they could figure out how to get the stuff outta' the leaf ? Nah.

"Scopolamine or Hyoscine, formula C17H21 NO4, which occurs in the roots of certain herbs belonging to the nightshade family. A viscous liquid, it dissolves fairly readily in water. The monohydrate of the alkaloid forms crystals of melting point 59° C (138° F). Scopolamine is optically active and levorotary-that is, it rotates the plane of polarized light to the left. Scopolamine is used medically to dilate the eye; to depress the central nervous system, which effect makes it valuable as a sedative and preanesthetic; and to prevent motion sickness."

BILIOGRAPHY:

John a.k.a Spunky.
Microsoft " ENCARTA " '99.
Dan the Great and Powerfull Future World Ruler.