It is often seen in costume dramas, but it is actually a good medicine for Parkinson's disease

My knowledge of knockout drugs began with reading "Water Margin". It saw that a small packet of white flour was secretly sprinkled into the wine and stirred gently, which could make people drunk. As a young child, I was both curious and frightened.

After studying medicine, I found out that the main ingredient of the knockout drug is actually a plant that looks very beautiful and intoxicating, and is called the flower of love. The key is that this plant can also treat Parkinson's disease and motion sickness. It is Datura stramonium.

There are a lot of this kind of plant in my hometown, with clusters of it in ditches and on roadsides. Its fruit is covered with small green thorns, which will cause pain and itching if they prick people.

Traditional Chinese medicine believes that Datura stramonium is pungent and warm in nature, poisonous, and enters the heart, spleen, and lung meridians. It has the effects of relieving cough and asthma, relieving pain and antispasmodic. It is often used for cough with no or little phlegm, rheumatism, bruises, cold pain in the heart and abdomen, epilepsy and other diseases.

Modern pharmacological research has shown that the main ingredient of Datura stramonium is scopolamine (dong lang dang jian), which acts on the human central nervous system, causing sedative, hypnotic and anesthetic effects, making people drowsy, sleepy and lose their memory; on the other hand, it acts on the human periphery, inhibiting glandular secretions, such as sweat glands, tear glands and salivary glands, thereby reducing sweating. Perhaps this is the original meaning of "knocking potion" - to prevent sweating.

However, this plant, which is very harmful to humans, can also cure diseases and save lives if used properly. It can be used clinically to anesthetize patients by utilizing its sedative and hypnotic effects. From the earliest Ma Fei San developed by Hua Tuo to the preoperative anesthesia of traditional Chinese medicine in the 1970s, this plant was the main one used. Its sedative effect can also be used to relieve the symptoms of Parkinson's disease and motion sickness (such as carsickness, seasickness, etc.). It can also be used to relieve arteriovenous spasm and bring patients in early shock back to life.

It seems that everything in this world has two sides, and the key is to make good use of it.