Solanum seaforthianum, commonly known as Brazilian nightshade, is a perennial woody vine native to Brazil. It has become widely naturalized and invasive outside its native range, including in Australia, Africa, and parts of Asia. The plant produces violet or pale violet star-shaped flowers and bright red berries. While it is used as an ornamental plant, it can be poisonous to livestock and is considered a noxious weed in some regions due to its ability to choke out native vegetation. The presentation provided details on the plant's morphology, reproduction, distribution, uses, and impacts.

1. Solanum
seaforthianum Andrews.
Presented By- Dr. Aditi Gandhi
Dept. of Dravya Guna, SDMCAH, Hassan
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2. Introduction
• Anukta Dravya
• Genus Solanum : Latin word – solamen meaning
comfort, solace or soothing in ref to the sedative
or healing effect.
• Species S. seaforthianum take its species epithet
from “Lord Seaforth” – Francis Humberston
Mackenzie, a governor of Barbados from 1801 – 1806,
British politician, soldier, and botanist.
• In 1794 : Seaforth was elected a Fellow of the
Royal Society for his contribution to botany.
• The sp. Seaforthia was named after him.
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3. Vernacular names
• Eng- Brazilian nightshade, Potato
creeper, Climbing nightshade,
Deadly nightshade, St. Vincent
Lilac, Italian jasmine, star potato
vine
• Kannada – Balli sunde
• Malayalam – Thoongumasu
{Site : Flora of Peninsular India,
keralaplants.in}
• Spanish – jazmin de italia
• Puerto rico – false belladona
Synonym
• Solanum botryophorum
• S. cirrhosum
• S. kerri
• S. prunifolium
• S. venustum
• S. salignum
• S. seaforthianum var. disjunctum
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4. Distribution
• A weed of untended areas with fertile soils.
• Karnataka: Chikmaglur, Coorg, Hassan, Mysore, Shimoga
• Andhra Pradesh : Kadapa, Kurnool, Chitoor, Prakasam dist.
• Kerala : Idukki, Kannur, Palakkad, Thiruvananthapuram
• Tamil Nadu : Dharmapuri, Dindigul, Nilgiri, Salem, Tiruvanamali
{Flora of Tamil Nadu Vol. 2}
• Native : Brazil , Now widely naturalized.
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5. Morphology
• Perennial woody vine with climbing stems, often covering fences/
shrubs, reaching 5m in height.
• Stems : terate, glabrous, green, sparsely pubescent.
• Leaves : simple (appears compound) – more often pinnatifid or pinnately
lobed with up to 4 pairs of leaflets, elliptic to broadly triangular in
outline, membranous,
the upper surfaces glabrous or with tiny simple uniseriate trichomes on
the veins and margins,
the lower surfaces glabrous; base acute, truncate or slightly cordate,
occasionally oblique and asymmetric; margins commonly entire,
apex acute to acuminate; petioles 1-4 cm long.
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6. Leaf
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7. Inflorescences terminal, later lateral, to 25 or more cm long, with many open,
divaricate branches, with up to 100 or more flowers, glabrous;
pedicels 0.8-1.4 cm,
Flowers all perfect, 5-merous. Buds globose
Calyx tube approximately 0.5 mm, flattened and open
Corolla : violet or pale violet, stellate-rotate, lobed ½ to 2/3rd of the way to the
base, spreading or slightly cupped at anthesis(flowering period of a plant from the
opening of the flower bud), densely & minutely pubescent on the tips & margins;
free portion of filaments markedly unequal, the longest filament 2-3 mm,
glabrous;
anthers occasionally 1 anther slightly larger, yellow ;
ovary glabrous; style 7-10 mm long, stigma capitate.
Fruit : a globose berry, 0.8-1.4 cm in diameter, bright shiny red when ripe,
glabrous, the pericarp thin;
Seeds 4-20 per berry, 4-4.5 x 2.5-3 mm, flattened-reniform, pale yellowish tan,
the surfaces minutely pitted (Knapp, 2010).
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11. Reproduction and Dispersal
• This sp. reproduces mainly by seed, which are most often dispersed
by birds and other animals that eat the fleshy fruit.
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12. Uses
• Widely commercialized as a garden ornamental plant.
• The sp. Has become widely naturalized outside its native range and is
an Invasive species in Australia, Africa, Indochina – Cambodia, Laos,
Myanmar, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, India, : choking the Native
vegetation and poisoning the livestock.
• No medicinal property found !
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13. • Ethno medicinal information from tribal people of Sirumalai hills of
Western Ghats of Tamil Nadu revealed that extract of this plants used
by Paliyan tribe as a remedy for skin diseases and for the treatment of
boils.
There is however, no report on the antibacterial activity of Solanum
seaforthianum in the literature.
https://www.imedpub.com/articles/in-vitro-growth-inhibition-of-
pathogenic-bacteria-by-solanum-seaforthianum-l.pdf
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15. Other impacts
• Weed
• Its berries are reported to be poisonous to
poultry, pigs, cattle, sheep and children.
• It has been included in the Global Invasive
Species Database (GISD, 2008)
• It has been listed as a noxious weed in South
Africa.
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16. References
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• Internet :
1. Wikipedia
2. Flora of India
3. Indiabiodiversity.org (synonyms,
distribution)
4. Efloraofindia.com
5. cabi.org – ‘Centre of Agriculture and
Biosciences International’ - Invasive Species
Compendium (ISC)
6. Google images
7. Google scholar

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