Batman, Jimsonweed, and Zombies
Detective Comics #619 “Rite of Passage, Part Two: Beyond Belief”
Alan Grant, writer
Norm Breyfogle, penciler
Published August 1990
Tim Drake’s parent’s have been kidnapped and a mysterious tape sent to the Gotham Police demanding a ransom. Batman notices a faint odor on the tape and uses it to help track down the criminals.
Batman is at least partially correct. Jimsonweed (aka Thornapple, Devil’s Trumpet, Ditch Weed; scientific name Datura stramonium) is thought to have originated in Central America (though some experts suspect India) and spread from there. Now it is a ubiquitous plant found worldwide, not just Central America. In fact, the name Jimsonweed is thought to be a corruption of Jamestown Weed, another name of the plant, and proof it was found in Virginia from the early days of American history. Here’s a map of the plant’s distribution in the U.S. alone.
More proof that the drug is known worldwide: it shows up several times in the manga Apothecarius Argentum.
Over the years, medications made from Jimsonweed have had a number of uses. Most well known, as Batman notes, was its use in treating asthma. The 1899 Merck Manual mentions stramonium (a medical name for Jimsonweed) when discussing the treatment of asthma:
Unfortunately, the line between a safe dose and a toxic dose was very thin when dealing with Datura and there have been quite a few deaths attributed to its use. For this reason, the FDA declared it “unfit for human consumption” and it is no longer used medicinally in the United States — but I suspect it is still used in a number of third world countries. Jimsonweed is also used by some people as a recreational hallucinogen, but again it is extremely easy to accidentally take a toxic dose.
Another interesting fact about Jimsonweed is the plant’s rumored use in the preparation of zombies. Also known as “Zombie Cucumber”, Datura has long been suspected as one of the drugs used to turn people into zombies. We’re talking the classic Haitian zombies here, not the modern brain eating ones. Since the Drakes’ kidnapper is a Haitian medicine man, this Haiti-Zombie-Jimsonweed connection is undoubtedly intentional, if unnoticed by Batman.
January 23rd, 2009 at 2:31 am
Another favoured “Zombie powder” uses dried Crapaud De Mer. [better known as the Puffer fish Spheroeroides Testudineus] Some recipies call for them to be harvested at a certain time of year for best efficaciousness [or y'know, when the tetrodotoxin peaks]
Wouldn’t modern “zombies” be more akin to a traditional Ghoul? i mean with the whole “Yum! Long Pig” thing? :D
January 23rd, 2009 at 8:12 am
This has nothing to do with Jimsonweed, but as a former lab tech and machinist, I should think Batman’s costume would make him incredibly clumsy – especially the gauntlets with their projecting “bat-hooks”. He must waste thousands of dollars a year in broken glassware alone!
January 23rd, 2009 at 8:36 am
Official Comment
Drugs made form various frogs and toads also end up in Zombie powder (along with Datura and fugu).
January 23rd, 2009 at 10:20 am
Man, those proud people in Wyoming are still holding out. God bless ‘em.
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:58 pm
Isn’t D. Tatula the really nasty one? Southern Americans used it as a truth drug.
January 23rd, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Um, are you sure you didn’t mean this was published in 1990, not 1980?
January 23rd, 2009 at 6:07 pm
Have you read any Berton Roueche? He wrote about medical detective work, usually involving figuring out mysterious illnesses and deaths. One of his articles involved jimsonweed and tomatoes. It’s worth digging up, and if you haven’t already read them his books are, I suspect, right up your proverbial alley.
January 25th, 2009 at 7:42 am
Datura was also one of the healing herbs in an old 3DO and Sega CD video game called Corpse Killer, set in South America.
January 26th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
As I recall that Berton Roueche article, the family in question had grafted tomatoes onto jimsonweed stock. They learned that interesting technique from another gardener, who showed no signs of jimsonweed poisoning at all.
Jimsonweed hasn’t shown up on “House” yet, has it? The first couple of seasons used several cases straight out of Berton Roueche.
January 29th, 2009 at 5:38 am
A person who unkowningly ingested Jimsonweed would make a good focus of a “House” episode. Someone in the first flush of Jimsonweed is as loony as can be; very amusing if you like being with people who have no sense of place, time, propriety, though plenty of self. This is also locoweed. In the first part, the person is anything but zombie-like, being far too active.
The coma-like part is only intermittently amusing, when your zombie is acting out what is in his head. He is out of it between episodes of thinking he is smoking a cigarette, (that suprisingly common, even in non-smokers) or performing any other function that is in his head, including ones that he would otherwise keep private. If you are observing him, he does not know you are there. Funny?
Of course, his internal organs are shutting down as totally as his mental processes and that is what can kill him.
If he survives the first phases and regains conciousness, you really have a conversation with the true person. He is lucent and transparent and has little social awareness. It is not that he couldn’t conceal his thoughts from you. He just forgets to do so. He forgets what he said ten minutes before – lying is pointless in the circumstances, though you may get a series of lies, if he remembers to dissimulate. This might be a perfect “truth-drug”, but only if the person survived the shutting-down-of-the-internal-organs part of the experience and with only with truly dedicated and relentless interrogator working through the nonsense.
The forgeting part is why it is easy to take a toxic dose.
If the idea of being abysmally stupid appeals to you, and you are not concerned about health or death, this is the drug for you. In the summer it is free. It grows everywhere. In the picture, above, you see moonflower, which is a lovely annual in the north, but perrenial down south.
The many varieties of Datura would strain even Sherlocke Holmes’ discerning sense of smell.
January 29th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
“Batman is at least partially correct.”
Batman? ‘Partially’ correct? You just blew my mind.
I…I need to lay down.
January 30th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
It’s kind of interesting, they’re doing a miniseries with the unpopular Justice League character called Vixen right now, called Return Of The Lion, where Superman, Black Canary and someone else that I can’t remember, have been turned into Voodoo zombies via datura mixed with Kryptonite, while trying to help her in Africa. But Batman was the one that identified the scent of datura, and pointed out the zombie connection if I recall.
February 8th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Is there a reason why Datura won’t grow in Wyoming?
February 8th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
Official Comment
I’m guessing there’s not enough people in the state to go out and look for it., because it’s got to be there somewhere.
January 31st, 2010 at 4:58 pm
It is also used by the mafia as knockout drops. Its main use is to deprive the subject of his or her resistance thereby making the subject totally suseptable to suggestions of any type. The more you know about a subject the more control you have over them.
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