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

Description

Yellow-fruit nightshade is an erect herb, that is sometimes woody at the base, and measures tall. It is copiously armed with sturdy, needlelike, and broad-based prickles measuring 0.5-2cm x 0.5-1.5mm. 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 Pinnation (also called pennation) is the arrangement of feather-like or multi-divided features arising from both sides of a common axis. Pinnation occurs in biological morphology, in crystals, such as some forms of ice or metal crystals, and ...

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. The racemose

inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

of the plant is 4-7cm tall, and the bell-shaped sepal tube has a diameter of 1cm. 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 The stamen (: stamina or stamens) is a part consisting of the male reproductive organs of a flower. Collectively, the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filamen ...

8mm, and the

style Style, or styles may refer to: Film and television * ''Style'' (2001 film), a Hindi film starring Sharman Joshi, Riya Sen, Sahil Khan and Shilpi Mudgal * ''Style'' (2002 film), a Tamil drama film * ''Style'' (2004 film), a Burmese film * '' ...

1cm. 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.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 Flowering normally appears around November to May.

Occurrence

The yellow-fruit nightshade is cultivated in the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than list of h ...

, southeast Malaysia, Australia, and

Polynesia Polynesia ( , ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of more than 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are called Polynesians. They have many things in ...

. 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.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 5005-501

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Gallery

Solanum surattense.JPG, The plant Solanum virginianum (8245207906).jpg, The flowers The immature fruits of Solanum surattense in Yunnan, China.jpg, The immature fruits കണ്ടകാരിചുണ്ട-solanum xanthocarpum.jpg, Unripe (green) and ripe (yellow) Solanum xanthocarpum, fruit opened.JPG, A fruit opened

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Yellow fruit nightshade Medicinal plants of Asia virginianum