Dhatura Poisoning and Aak Latex: The Desi Totkay That Cause Harm

Aak (Calotropis) and dhatura (Datura) are poisonous plants: aak’s milky latex can blister skin and badly damage the eye, and every part of dhatura, especially the seeds, can cause confusion, a racing heart and death. If someone has swallowed either or got aak milk in an eye, go to hospital now and bring the plant with you; this guide explains the signs, the totkay that cause the harm, and why there’s no safe home dose.

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How do you recognise aak and dhatura?

Both grow wild on waste ground, roadsides and railway lines across Pakistan and India, which is exactly why they turn up in home remedies: they’re everywhere, they look dramatic, and old people remember them being used.

• Aak (madar, Calotropis procera): a grey-green shrub with thick, rubbery, oval leaves that break to ooze white milk. Small waxy flowers, white to lilac. Fat green pods that split to release seeds with silky white floss.
• Dhatura (thorn apple, Datura metel or stramonium): a sprawling plant with large, uneven-edged leaves that smell unpleasant when crushed. Big trumpet-shaped flowers, white or purple. A round, spiny fruit like a small green mace, full of flat, kidney-shaped brown or black seeds.

Dhatura is also offered at Shiva temples, and seeing it in a holy setting makes some people think it’s gentle. It isn’t. The offering is a tradition; eating it is poisoning.

What makes dhatura so dangerous?

Dhatura contains atropine, hyoscine (scopolamine) and hyoscyamine, natural chemicals that block the nerve signals which make you sweat, salivate, focus your eyes and keep your heart steady. Doctors call the result anticholinergic poisoning, and medical students learn its signs with an old rhyme:

• Hot as a hare: fever, because the body can’t sweat
• Dry as a bone: dry mouth and dry skin
• Red as a beet: flushed face
• Blind as a bat: huge pupils and blurred vision
• Mad as a hatter: confusion, agitation, hallucinations, picking at the air

Add a fast heartbeat, being unable to pass urine, and in bad cases fits and coma. Symptoms can start within an hour and last a day or more, because the poison also slows the gut. The amount of alkaloid in a seed varies hugely from plant to plant and season to season, so there is no “small safe amount”; a handful of seeds has killed people.

Historically, dhatura seeds were used to drug travellers and rob them, and even now cases turn up where seeds were slipped into food, sweets or drinks. Accidental poisoning also happens when seeds get mixed into home-ground flour or when children play with the spiny fruit.

What does aak do to the eyes and skin?

Aak’s white latex is strongly irritant and contains cardiac glycosides (chemicals that act on the heart, a bit like digoxin).

• In the eye: it can cause sudden pain, watering, light sensitivity and blurred, misty vision as the clear front window of the eye (the cornea) swells. Most cases recover with prompt washing and eye care, but some are left with scarring.
• On the skin: redness, burning and blisters, worse on thin skin and on children.
• Swallowed: vomiting, belly pain and, in larger amounts, a dangerously slow or irregular heartbeat.

Latex in the eye or on skin: first aid

1. Eye: hold the eyelids open and rinse under gently running clean water, from the inner corner outwards, for at least 15 to 20 minutes. Take out contact lenses if they come out easily.
2. Don’t rub, don’t put in milk, ghee, honey, surma or rose water, and don’t use any drops from the house.
3. Go to an eye casualty or emergency department the same day, even if the pain eases.
4. Skin: wash with soap and plenty of running water for 10 minutes, remove soiled clothing, and don’t break blisters.
5. Swallowed: don’t give anything by mouth, don’t make the person vomit, and go to hospital at once with the plant.

Which desi totkay cause the harm?

We won’t give recipes here, because that’s how people get hurt. These are the patterns that bring people to hospital:

• Aak latex on warts, corns, thorns, ringworm or a toothache cavity: burns the skin or gum, and drips into eyes when people touch their face.
• Warmed aak leaves tied on knees, heels or swollen feet: blisters, especially in diabetics with poor feeling in the feet.
• “Aak leaf under the sole for sugar” videos: it doesn’t lower blood sugar, and it can blister numb diabetic skin unnoticed.
• Dhatura leaf, seed or “dhatura oil” for hair fall, dandruff, lice or joint pain: the alkaloids can be absorbed through broken skin and scalp, and the oil ends up swallowed or in eyes.
• Dhatura smoke for asthma or dhatura seeds as a “nasha”: straight anticholinergic poisoning.

Our guide to poisonous house and garden plants covers kaner and other common ones, and camphor (kapoor) safety covers another totka ingredient that sends children to hospital.

What people say, what tradition says and what’s true

What people say

“It’s an old Ayurvedic plant, my elders used it, so it must be safe if you use a little.”

What tradition says

Ayurveda and Unani both list aak and dhatura, but they class them among the poisonous herbs (upavisha in Ayurveda) that were only used after special purification by trained practitioners, and in tiny amounts inside compounds. Tradition itself treated them as dangerous.

Our honest take Skip completely

There’s no home use of either plant that’s worth the risk. Medicines from the same chemical family exist, but they’re made in exact, tested strengths and prescribed for specific problems; a wild plant gives you an unknown amount. For joint pain, hair fall, warts or asthma, there are safer options and our other guides cover them.

Myth: boiling or roasting dhatura seeds makes them safe

Heat doesn’t reliably destroy the alkaloids. Roasted or boiled seeds still poison people.

Myth: applying it on the skin can’t harm you

Aak latex burns skin directly, and dhatura’s alkaloids can pass through broken skin, eye surfaces and the scalp. Children have been poisoned this way.

How to keep your family safe

• Pull out dhatura and aak from your yard, roof or play areas while wearing gloves and keeping hands away from the face; wash hands well after.
• Teach children not to touch the spiny dhatura fruit or the milky aak leaves.
• Check home-ground grain and flour for dark, flat seeds if dhatura grows near the field.
• Be wary of sweets or drinks offered by strangers on journeys.

Dhatura and aak: questions people ask

For more honest checks of old fixes, visit Desi Remedies.