Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 3 Volume 1 Number 1 January- February,1952 Article 11 1-1952 Poison Plants - Pituri C. A. Gardner H. W. Bennetts Follow this and additional works at: https://researchlibrary.agric.wa.gov.au/journal_agriculture3 Part of the Plant Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Gardner, C. A. and Bennetts, H. W. (1952) "Poison Plants - Pituri," Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 3: Vol. 1 : No. 1 , Article 11. Available at: https://researchlibrary.agric.wa.gov.au/journal_agriculture3/vol1/iss1/11 This article is brought to you for free and open access by Research Library. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 3 by an authorized administrator of Research Library. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Jan.-Peb., 1952] JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE, W. A. 53 POISGf OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA C. A. GARDNER, (Government Botanist) and H. W. BENNETTS. D.V.Sc. (Principal, Animal Health and •^—^——^^—^^^-^—^—^—^^-^——^——^^^^— Nutrition Laboratories) •"• I. PITURI (Duboisia Hopwoodii [F. Muell] F. Muell.) d VNLY a few of the drug-yielding plants found on their hunting grounds appear ^* to have been known to the Australian aborigines. Among those used and valued was the plant called "pituri" by the Central Australian tribes. The leaves of this plant, after drying and suitable preparation, were chewed as a narcotic. Pituri first came to the notice of the The preparation of pituri as a chew­ white man through the observations of ing narcotic, appears to have been one Burke and Wills at Cooper's Creek in in which the leaves were dried, or first 1861, who received it from the natives "sweated" under a layer of coarse sand there, and it is on record that the gift and then dried. This material was mixed caused a severe headache to the recipi­ with gum and the ashes of some other ents. The aborigines of Central Australia plant or plants, especially Acacia also chewed the leaves of the indigenous ligulata, and made into lumps, usually species of tobacco, principally Nicotiana cigar-shaped, forming "quids." This was excelsior, and the fact that the two chewed. These quids of pituri or of species were often employed as a mix­ pituri-tobacco mixture, were a valuable ture lead to some confusion in deter­ article of barter, and the chewing habit mining the chemical properties of the was adopted by tribes far removed from so-called pituri, which was perhaps such the sources of supply as well as those a mixture in the first samples examined. tribes in whose territory the plant or In certain areas, such as the vicinity of plants occurred. the Blythe and Everard ranges, although Pituri occurs there abundantly, the natives (according to Helms, who was EFFECTS botanist with the Elder Exploring Expi- There are various accounts of the dition), chewed the leaves of native action of pituri; some writers assert that tobacco, and were apparently unaware of chewing promoted excitement, and the the narcotic properties of pituri. On the substance was chewed before fighting, other hand, certain tribes used pituri or before any important event; it was by itself. also claimed to allay fatigue, and was I \ Journal of agriculture Vol. 1 1952 54 JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE, W.A. [Jan.-Feb. 1952 said to be used on long and arduous jour­ being 1.3 per cent., and the nor-nicotine neys in the manner that the Peruvians content 1.1 per cent., with an average used coca. It is, however, difficult to total alkaloid content of 2.4 per cent. believe that a plant or plants (both be­ From the total of 70 samples, five showed long to the Solanaceae) used as a nar­ no trace of nicotine. A few samples cotic with its soothing effects, could also tested in the field indicated a much be used as a stimulant, and it is probable higher alkaloid content, the loss upon that these early accounts have been drying being calculated as from 4.8 per exaggerated. Most, if not all Solanaceous cent, to 1.0 per cent, for nicotine, and plants have a depressant action on the from 0.9 to 0.3 per cent, for nor-nicotine. human system. Thus the amounts of nicotine and nor- In addition pituri was. also used as a nicotine determined, may be as much as game poison, the leafy branches being five and three times respectively, those placed in pools of water for the purpose found in the dried material. A plant of poisoning emus and kangaroos. Ani­ with an excess of 25 per cent, of nicotine mals and birds drinking the water be­ content is indeed a highly toxic species. came so stupefied that they could be readily killed by natives lying in wait for the purpose. RANGE The most northerly record we have In 1872 Joseph Bancroft examined for pituri is Anna Plains Station on the pituri, which he found to contain an Eighty-mile Beach. From here it extends alkaloid different from that obtained southwards, embracing the De Gray, from the related species Duboisia Ashburton, Minilya, Gascoyne and Mur- myoporoides. Ferdinand Mueller con­ chison districts, and extending east­ cluded that the pituri alkaloid was simi­ wards into Central and South Australia. lar to, but not identical with nicotine, Its southern limits can be fairly ac­ and in 1880, Liversidge of Sydney, curately traced: commencing from isolated a brown liquid, acrid alkaloid Ajana near the Murchison River, this distinct from nicotine, which he called boundary line travels by way of Mullewa, piturine. It should be remembered how­ Morawa, Perenjori, Latham, Kalannie, ever that, in some cases at least, the Kulja, Gabbin, Kununoppin, thence to a material examined seems to have been point between Burracoppin and Wal- the prepared material, and was probably goolan. It appears to be fairly concen­ a mixture of Duboisia and Nicotiana. trated along this line, principally in red Subsequent work added to this confu­ or yellow sand, sometimes in gravelly sion, and it was not until 1935, when soils, and very rarely in the loamy forest Hicks and Le Messurier isolated a new soils. Fairly extensive areas occur in the alkaloid, d-nor-nicotine, that the mat­ vicinity of Pindar, Perenjori, Payne's ter was clarified. Find, Comet Vale, Goodlands and Ghooli. Subsequent work carried out by White The virulence of the plant expressed in and Bottomly, under the auspices of the its toxicity varies considerably. It Drug Panel of Western Australia, on 70 flowers from August to October, and samples from various localities between produces its small black berries in Dec­ Mullewa and Bencubbin, showed (on ember and January. These berries are dried material) a considerable variation eaten by birds, and in this way the plant in the nicotine and nor-nicotine contents is disseminated. It germinates freely of pituri. Such dried material varied in after summer thunderstorms, and tends nicotine from nil to 5.3 per cent., and in to develop vigorously in cultivated land. nor-nicotine from 0.1 to 4.1 per cent. The An objectionable habit is the production total alkaloids varying from 0.4 to 5.7 of root suckers, so that it is not sufficient per cent., the average nicotine content to cut the bushes down at the soil level Journal of agriculture Vol. 1 1952 Jan.-Feb., 1952] JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE, W.A. 55 PITURI.—A, branchlet with leaves, flowers and fruits; Bl and B2, flower and bud—much magnified; C, corolla; D, corolla silt open showing flower corolla lobes and four perfect stamens; E, calyx and ovary after the corolla has fallen; F, fruit (much magnified). origin \ Journal of agriculture Vol. 1 1952 56 JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE, W. A. [Jan.-Peb. 1952 and the plants should be grubbed. Cases of an inch in diameter, and contains 1-2 of poisoning in hay, cut on land pre­ fertile seeds immersed in a dark- viously carrying pituri, are not uncom­ coloured pulp—a berry. mon. We have no records of pituri from the districts southwards from the East­ The plant takes its name Duboisia ern Goldflelds Railway except in the from Charles Dubois (1656-1740), a Lon­ don merchant and patron of botany who vicinity of Carrabin, and towards Hig- collected a large herbarium now at Ox­ ginsville. The species is essentially one ford; the specific epithet commemorates of the dry interior and the marginal H. Hopwood, of Echuca, a patron of the wheat-growing country. Victorian Expedition. DESCRIPTION OF THE PLANT THE TOXICITY OF PITURI The plant is known to be toxic for Pituri is usually a shrub varying in horses, cattle, goats, sheep and camels. height from about six to ten feet; rarely Feeding tests were carried out locally does it assume the aspect of a small on sheep with material derived from tree, with a dark-coloured somewhat Carrabin. Flowers were fed with nega­ corky bark. The bark of the typical tive results, but the leaves were shown shrubby form is as at first smooth, but to be highly toxic. One sheep drenched in age it becomes somewhat corky and with a watery extract of 10 ounces of yellowish on the lower parts. There is leaves died within 10 minutes; extract a rich development of branching, the equivalent to three ounces of leaves pro­ branches being sometimes willow-like, duced death within two hours, whereas sometimes erect, more frequently droop­ smaller amounts produced symptoms ing towards their tips, and typically a followed by recovery. dark purpleish colour. Symptoms: Sheep poisoned with pituri The leaves are alternately placed, in showed dullness, trembling and muscu­ shape and size they are variable; their lar weakness, particularly of the fore usual length is about five inches, but legs and neck, the head being carried may be much less, tapering at both ends, low, and the ears drooped.