Yellow-fruit nightshade

Solanum virginianum, also called Surattense nightshade,[2] yellow-fruit nightshade, yellow-berried nightshade, Indian nightshade, Thai green eggplant, or Thai striped eggplant (from the unripe fruit),[3] is a medicinal plant used mostly in India. Some parts of the plant, such as the fruit, are poisonous.[4] The common name is Kantakari. Solanum surattense Burm. f. and Solanum xanthocarpum Schrad. and Wendl. are synonyms of Solanum virginianum L. (Sharma et al., 2010).

Not to be confused with Thai eggplant, which are edible varieties of the eggplant species Solanum melongena.

Yellow-fruit nightshade
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Solanales
Family: Solanaceae
Genus: Solanum
Species:
S. virginianum
Binomial name
Solanum virginianum
L.
Synonyms[1]
List
    • Solanum arabicum Dunal
    • Solanum armatum Forssk.
    • Solanum ferox Burm.f.
    • Solanum gula Buch.-Ham.
    • Solanum jacquinii Willd.
    • Solanum jacquinii Miq.
    • Solanum macannii Santapau
    • Solanum mairei H.Lév.
    • Solanum melongena Wall.
    • Solanum surattense Burm.f.
    • Solanum virginicum L.
    • Solanum xanthocarpum Schrad.

Description

Plant body

Thorny Nightshade is an erect herb, that is sometimes woody at the base, and measures 50–70 cm (20–28 in) tall. It is copiously armed with sturdy, needlelike, and broad-based prickles measuring 0.5-2cm x 0.5-1.5mm.[5]

Leaves

The plant has ovate-oblong, sinuated leaves that are unequally paired, with blades measuring 4-9cm × 2-4.5cm. They have an acute apex, unequal lobes and are either pinnate or possessive of usually 5-9 lobes. The veins and stalks of the leaves are prickly, and the stalks have a length of 2-3.5cm.

Inflorescence

The racemose inflorescence of the plant is 4-7cm tall, and the bell-shaped sepal tube has a diameter of 1cm.

Flowers

The blue-purple flowers measure 1.4–1.6 cm × 2.5 cm. The petals are ovate-deltate, measure 6–8mm, and are densely pubescent with stellate hairs. The filaments have a measurement of 1mm, the anthers 8mm, and the style 1cm.

Fruits

The yellow-fruit nightshade’s fruiting pedicels are 2–3.6cm tall. They have prickles and sparse stellate hairs, while the fruiting sepals are prickly and sparsely pubescent. Pale yellow berries of 1.3–2.2cm in diameter are produced, when ripe the yellow fruits are around 3cm in diameter.[6] Flowering normally appears around November to May.[7]

Occurrence

The yellow-fruit nightshade is cultivated in the Himalayas, South-East Malaysia, Australia, and the Polynesian region.[8] It is commonly found in open spaces, along roadsides, and elsewhere in India.

Medicine

In-vitro antioxidant and in-vivo antimutagenic properties of Solanum xanthocarpum seed extracts have been examined by qualitative phytochemical screening, which reveals the presence of polyphenols, flavonoids, glycoside, alkaloids, carbohydrates, and reducing sugar in the plant. Based on preliminary qualitative phytochemical screening, quantitative estimation of polyphenols in the plant has also been performed. The quantitative estimation of alcoholic extracts found significant amounts of polyphenols, as compared to aqueous extracts. In-vitro antioxidant studies have been performed by two methods: DDPH, and a superoxide radical scavenging method. The alcoholic extracts showed significant antioxidant properties, as compared to aqueous extracts. Based on polyphenols and antioxidant properties, alcoholic extracts were used for the antimutagenic (clastogenic) test. The alcoholic extracts produced significant results regarding the antimutagenic activity.[9]

  • The plant
    The plant
  • The flowers
    The flowers
  • The immature fruits
    The immature fruits
  • Unripe (green) and ripe (yellow)
    Unripe (green) and ripe (yellow)
  • A fruit opened
    A fruit opened

See also
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Solanum virginianum.

Note

    References
    1. "Solanum virginianum L." Plants of the World Online. Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 2017. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
    2. USDA, NRCS (n.d.). "Solanum virginianum". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved 17 November 2015.
    3. René T. J. Cappers, Reinder Neef, Renée M. Bekker, Digital Atlas of Economic Plants: Acanthaceae - Hypoxidaceae, Vol. 2A, Barkhuis, 2009, p. 269
    4. Michel H. Porcher, Know your eggplants - Part 4:The related Nightshades
    5. Gokhale, Mahesh &, S.S.Shaikh & Chavan, Niranjana &, S.V.Toro. (2013). Floral wealth of Achara- A sacred village on central west coast of India.
    6. Rémi Tournebize, Points on the ethno-ecological knowledge and practices among four Scheduled Tribes of the Nilgiris: Toda, Kota, Alu Kurumba and Irula, with emphasis on Toda ethnobotany, Institute of Research for Development (Marseille), Thesis 2013, p. 103
    7. "Flowers of India: Thorny Nightshade". Retrieved 2023-08-28.
    8. "Solanum surattense Burm. f." Archived from the original on 2020-08-06. Retrieved 2023-07-13.
    9. Antioxidant and Antimutagenic (Anticlastogenic) Effect of Solanum xanthocarpum seed extracts. Santosh Kumar Vaidya, Dharmesh K. Golwala and Darpini S. Patel.  International Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Nanotechnology (ISSN: 0974-3278) 2020: Volume 13, Issue 4, page 5005-5010.
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