what is datura (gegemu)?

INTRODUCTION One of the most important medicinal plants is Datura   (thorn apple), which is an annual plant belongs to the family of Solanaceae. Datura plant is an important medicinal plant as it is a well known source of different phytochemicals, it is distributed throughout most of the part of the world and it is abundant in Iraq,   This plant is rich in alkaloids which induce a stimulation of central nervous system and depression of the peripheral nerves typical for  parasympathetic. Its medical effects characteristics include spasmolytic, antispasmodic, anticholenergic and narcotic (Roddick, 1991). Also Datura plant rich in secondary metabolites which have antibacterial activity by different mechanisms (Saadabi et al., 2006). Datura stramonium (Family: Solanaceae), it is indigenous to Caspian region and in United States, South America, France, Germany, Hungary and Middle East. The main active constituents of plant are atropine and scopolamine. Dry leaves consists 0.25 % of alkaloids of stramonium, it is used as an aphrodisiac, medicinal, psychotropic, sacred and antispasmodic         ( Kulkarni , 2005).The present study aimed to evaluate the analgesic , anti-inflammatory , anti- motility and anti-enteropooling effects of DS leaves hydroalcoholic extract in mice as favorable characters to formulate and prepare anti-diarrhoeal drug