Cestrum nocturnum
Encyclopedia
Cestrum nocturnum is a species of Cestrum
, native to the West Indies. Common names include Night-blooming Cestrum, Lady of the Night, Queen of the Night, Night-blooming jessamine, and Night-blooming Jasmine. Hasnuhana (হাসনুহানা) is another popular name for the plant in Bengali
. Also known as Raat ki Rani (रात की रानी) (Queen of the night) in Hindi
, Nepali
and Urdu
, Raat Rani (रातराणी) in Marathi
夜來香 (yè lái xiāng) or 夜香木 (yè xiāng mù) in Chinese
, Dạ lai hương, or Dạ lý hương in Vietnamese
, and Dama de Noche in Spanish
. In Thai
it is known as Dok Ratree (ดอกราตรี) , and مسك الليل «Mesk el-leel» In Arabic
. In Jordan, it is known as kulunya, apparently a reference to eau de Cologne.
woody shrub
growing to 4 metres (13 ft) tall. The leaves
are simple, narrow lanceolate, 6–20 cm (2–8 in) long and 2–4.5 cm broad, smooth and glossy, with an entire margin. The flower
s are greenish-white, with a slender tubular corolla 2-2.5 cm (1 in) long with five acute lobes, 10–13 mm diameter when open at night, and are produced in cymose inflorescence
s. A powerful, sweet perfume is released at night. The fruit
is a berry
10mm long by 5mm diameter, the colour of an aubergine
. There is also a variety with yellowish flowers. There are mixed reports regarding the toxicity of foliage and fruit.
for its flowers that are heavily perfumed at night. It grows best in average to moist soil that is light and sandy, with a neutral pH of 6.6 to 7.5, and is hardy to hardiness zone
8. Feed bi-weekly with a weak dilution of seaweed and fish emulsion fertilizer.
Ingestion of night jessamine (Cestrum nocturnum L.) has not been well documented, but there is some reason to believe that caution is in order. All members of the Solanaceae
family contain an alkaloid
toxin called Solanine
, although it should be noted that tomatoes, potatoes, sweet peppers, chili peppers and many other fruits and tubers belong to the same family and are routinely eaten without ill-effect. The most commonly-reported problems associated with night jessamine are respiratory problems from the scent, and feverish symptoms following ingestion.
Some people – especially those with respiratory sensitivities or asthma – report difficulty breathing, irritation of the nose and throat, headache, nausea, or other symptoms when exposed to the blossom's powerful scent. Some Cestrum species contain chlorogenic acid
, and the presence of this potent sensitizer may be responsible for this effect in C. nocturnum.
Some plant guides describe night jessamine as "toxic" and warn that ingesting plant parts, especially fruit, may result in elevated temperature, rapid pulse, excess salivation and gastritis.
The mechanisms of the plant's psychoactive effects are currently unknown, and anecdotal data is extremely limited. In a rare discussion of traditional entheogenic use of the plant, Müller-Ebeling, Rätsch, and Shahi describe shamanic use of night jessamine in Nepal. They describe experiencing "trippy" effects without mentioning unpleasant physical side effects. Rätsch's Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants also describes a handful of reports of ingestion of the plant without mentioning serious adverse side effects.
Spoerke et al. describe the following toxic effects reported from ingesting C. nocturnum:
Ingesting 15 lb of plant material caused a cow to salivate, clamp its jaws, collapse, and eventually die. A postmortem showed gastroenteritis and congestion of liver, kidneys, brain, and spinal cord. Although the berries and the sap are suspected of being toxic, several cases of ingestion of the berries have not shown them to be a problem, with one exception. Morton cites a case where children ate significant quantities (handfuls) of berries and had no significant effects and another two where berries were ingested in smaller amounts, with similar negative results.
Ingestion of green berries over several weeks by a 2-year-old child resulted in diarrhea, vomiting, and blood clots in the stool. Anemia and purpura [discoloration of the skin caused by subcutaneous bleeding] were also noted. A solanine alkaloid isolated from the stool was hemolytic to human erythrocytes.
Plant extracts have shown potent mosquito larvicidal activity against the larvae of Aedes aegypti
while showing no toxicity to fish
in tropical and subtropical regions throughout the world, including Australia
, New Zealand
, South Africa
, southern China
and the southernmost United States
, and is difficult to eradicate. It is classed as a weed in some countries.
In Auckland
New Zealand
, it has been reported as a seriously invasive weed to the Auckland Regional Council
and is under investigation. NS Forest and Bird is compiling an inventory of wild cestrum sites in order to place the plant on the banned list. The inventory can be viewed via Google Maps . Some nurseries still sell it without warning customers of the dangers to native bush reserves. It has been reported that the plant has been removed from some old folks' homes due to the strong scent causing difficulties for the residents.
Cestrum
Cestrum is a genus of - depending on authority - 150-250 species of flowering plants in the family Solanaceae. They are native to warm temperate to tropical regions of the Americas, from the southernmost United States south to the Bío-Bío Region in central Chile...
, native to the West Indies. Common names include Night-blooming Cestrum, Lady of the Night, Queen of the Night, Night-blooming jessamine, and Night-blooming Jasmine. Hasnuhana (হাসনুহানা) is another popular name for the plant in Bengali
Bengali language
Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...
. Also known as Raat ki Rani (रात की रानी) (Queen of the night) in Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
, Nepali
Nepali language
Nepali or Nepalese is a language in the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family.It is the official language and de facto lingua franca of Nepal and is also spoken in Bhutan, parts of India and parts of Myanmar...
and Urdu
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...
, Raat Rani (रातराणी) in Marathi
Marathi language
Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people of western and central India. It is the official language of the state of Maharashtra. There are over 68 million fluent speakers worldwide. Marathi has the fourth largest number of native speakers in India and is the fifteenth most...
夜來香 (yè lái xiāng) or 夜香木 (yè xiāng mù) in Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
, Dạ lai hương, or Dạ lý hương in Vietnamese
Vietnamese language
Vietnamese is the national and official language of Vietnam. It is the mother tongue of 86% of Vietnam's population, and of about three million overseas Vietnamese. It is also spoken as a second language by many ethnic minorities of Vietnam...
, and Dama de Noche in Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
. In Thai
Thai language
Thai , also known as Central Thai and Siamese, is the national and official language of Thailand and the native language of the Thai people, Thailand's dominant ethnic group. Thai is a member of the Tai group of the Tai–Kadai language family. Historical linguists have been unable to definitively...
it is known as Dok Ratree (ดอกราตรี) , and مسك الليل «Mesk el-leel» In Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
. In Jordan, it is known as kulunya, apparently a reference to eau de Cologne.
Description
It is an evergreenEvergreen
In botany, an evergreen plant is a plant that has leaves in all seasons. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage during the winter or dry season.There are many different kinds of evergreen plants, both trees and shrubs...
woody shrub
Shrub
A shrub or bush is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and shorter height, usually under 5–6 m tall. A large number of plants may become either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience...
growing to 4 metres (13 ft) tall. The leaves
Leaf
A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....
are simple, narrow lanceolate, 6–20 cm (2–8 in) long and 2–4.5 cm broad, smooth and glossy, with an entire margin. The flower
Flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...
s are greenish-white, with a slender tubular corolla 2-2.5 cm (1 in) long with five acute lobes, 10–13 mm diameter when open at night, and are produced in cymose inflorescence
Inflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...
s. A powerful, sweet perfume is released at night. The fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
is a berry
Berry
The botanical definition of a berry is a fleshy fruit produced from a single ovary. Grapes are an example. The berry is the most common type of fleshy fruit in which the entire ovary wall ripens into an edible pericarp. They may have one or more carpels with a thin covering and fleshy interiors....
10mm long by 5mm diameter, the colour of an aubergine
Aubergine
The eggplant, aubergine, melongene, brinjal or guinea squash is a plant of the family Solanaceae and genus Solanum. It bears a fruit of the same name, commonly used in cooking...
. There is also a variety with yellowish flowers. There are mixed reports regarding the toxicity of foliage and fruit.
Cultivation and uses
Cestrum nocturnum also known as Night Blooming Jasmine, is grown in subtropical regions as an ornamental plantOrnamental plant
Ornamental plants are plants that are grown for decorative purposes in gardens and landscape design projects, as house plants, for cut flowers and specimen display...
for its flowers that are heavily perfumed at night. It grows best in average to moist soil that is light and sandy, with a neutral pH of 6.6 to 7.5, and is hardy to hardiness zone
Hardiness zone
A hardiness zone is a geographically defined area in which a specific category of plant life is capable of growing, as defined by climatic conditions, including its ability to withstand the minimum temperatures of the zone...
8. Feed bi-weekly with a weak dilution of seaweed and fish emulsion fertilizer.
Ingestion of night jessamine (Cestrum nocturnum L.) has not been well documented, but there is some reason to believe that caution is in order. All members of the Solanaceae
Solanaceae
Solanaceae are a family of flowering plants that include a number of important agricultural crops as well as many toxic plants. The name of the family comes from the Latin Solanum "the nightshade plant", but the further etymology of that word is unclear...
family contain an alkaloid
Alkaloid
Alkaloids are a group of naturally occurring chemical compounds that contain mostly basic nitrogen atoms. This group also includes some related compounds with neutral and even weakly acidic properties. Also some synthetic compounds of similar structure are attributed to alkaloids...
toxin called Solanine
Solanine
Solanine is a glycoalkaloid poison found in species of the nightshade family , such as the potato . It can occur naturally in any part of the plant, including the leaves, fruit, and tubers. Solanine has fungicidal and pesticidal properties, and it is one of the plant's natural defenses...
, although it should be noted that tomatoes, potatoes, sweet peppers, chili peppers and many other fruits and tubers belong to the same family and are routinely eaten without ill-effect. The most commonly-reported problems associated with night jessamine are respiratory problems from the scent, and feverish symptoms following ingestion.
Some people – especially those with respiratory sensitivities or asthma – report difficulty breathing, irritation of the nose and throat, headache, nausea, or other symptoms when exposed to the blossom's powerful scent. Some Cestrum species contain chlorogenic acid
Chlorogenic acid
Chlorogenic acid is a hydroxycinnamic acid, a member of a family of naturally occurring organic compounds. These are esters of polyphenolic caffeic acid and cyclitol -quinic acid. It is an important biosynthetic intermediate. It also is one of the phenols found in coffee, bamboo Phyllostachys...
, and the presence of this potent sensitizer may be responsible for this effect in C. nocturnum.
Some plant guides describe night jessamine as "toxic" and warn that ingesting plant parts, especially fruit, may result in elevated temperature, rapid pulse, excess salivation and gastritis.
The mechanisms of the plant's psychoactive effects are currently unknown, and anecdotal data is extremely limited. In a rare discussion of traditional entheogenic use of the plant, Müller-Ebeling, Rätsch, and Shahi describe shamanic use of night jessamine in Nepal. They describe experiencing "trippy" effects without mentioning unpleasant physical side effects. Rätsch's Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants also describes a handful of reports of ingestion of the plant without mentioning serious adverse side effects.
Spoerke et al. describe the following toxic effects reported from ingesting C. nocturnum:
Ingesting 15 lb of plant material caused a cow to salivate, clamp its jaws, collapse, and eventually die. A postmortem showed gastroenteritis and congestion of liver, kidneys, brain, and spinal cord. Although the berries and the sap are suspected of being toxic, several cases of ingestion of the berries have not shown them to be a problem, with one exception. Morton cites a case where children ate significant quantities (handfuls) of berries and had no significant effects and another two where berries were ingested in smaller amounts, with similar negative results.
Ingestion of green berries over several weeks by a 2-year-old child resulted in diarrhea, vomiting, and blood clots in the stool. Anemia and purpura [discoloration of the skin caused by subcutaneous bleeding] were also noted. A solanine alkaloid isolated from the stool was hemolytic to human erythrocytes.
Plant extracts have shown potent mosquito larvicidal activity against the larvae of Aedes aegypti
Aedes aegypti
The yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti is a mosquito that can spread the dengue fever, Chikungunya and yellow fever viruses, and other diseases. The mosquito can be recognized by white markings on legs and a marking in the form of a lyre on the thorax...
while showing no toxicity to fish
Invasive potential
It has become widely naturalisedNaturalisation (biology)
In biology, naturalisation is any process by which a non-native organism spreads into the wild and its reproduction is sufficient to maintain its population. Such populations are said to be naturalised....
in tropical and subtropical regions throughout the world, including Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, southern China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
and the southernmost United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and is difficult to eradicate. It is classed as a weed in some countries.
In Auckland
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, it has been reported as a seriously invasive weed to the Auckland Regional Council
Auckland Regional Council
The Auckland Regional Council was the regional council of the Auckland Region. Its predecessor the Auckland Regional Authority was formed in 1963 and became the ARC in 1989...
and is under investigation. NS Forest and Bird is compiling an inventory of wild cestrum sites in order to place the plant on the banned list. The inventory can be viewed via Google Maps . Some nurseries still sell it without warning customers of the dangers to native bush reserves. It has been reported that the plant has been removed from some old folks' homes due to the strong scent causing difficulties for the residents.
Further reading
- Huxley, A., ed. (1990). New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. Macmillan.
- Germplasm Resources Information Network: Cestrum nocturnum
- Flora of China: Cestrum nocturnum in China
- Poisons Information Centre (Queensland): Cestrum nocturnum
- USDA Plants Profile: Cestrum nocturnum
- Floridata: Cestrum nocturnum