Datura Flower
洋金花 · Yáng Jīn Huā
Practitioner-only herb for severe asthma
Properties
WarmingWarming botanicalPungent
Concerns
What it does
Datura flower opens severely constricted airways during asthma attacks and dulls intractable pain. The active compounds, scopolamine and atropine, relax airway smooth muscle and dilate bronchi. In Chinese surgical history, datura was the main ingredient in 'mafeisan,' the traditional anesthetic recorded in the 2nd century. Highly toxic and strictly practitioner-controlled.
How to take it
Used only in tightly controlled practitioner formulas at tiny doses (0.3–0.6g processed). Modern TCM rarely prescribes it due to availability of safer asthma drugs.
Avoid self-use entirely. Modern asthma medications are far safer
Safety
- Highly toxic. Even small amounts can cause hallucinations, rapid heartbeat, and respiratory failure
- Strictly practitioner-only. Never source raw datura
- Strictly avoid during pregnancy
- Modern medicine has safer alternatives for both asthma and pain
- Talk to your doctor before starting, especially if you take medication
Where it comes from
Datura's most famous Chinese moment came in the 2nd century, when surgeon Hua Tuo reportedly used 'mafeisan' (an anesthetic based on datura) for abdominal surgery, over 1,500 years before Western anesthesia. The exact recipe was lost, but datura flower remained a TCM tool for severe asthma and intense pain. The plant has a long history in poisonings and ritual use across cultures. Modern medicine isolates scopolamine for motion sickness.