anti-inflammatory properties. Folk medicinal use in Peru In the district of Ayabaca in the Piura Region in the northern Peruvian Andes, S. jamesonii - known locally by the name San Juan (="Saint John") - is used as a pediatric anthelmintic. A whole-plant decoction is prepared by boiling approximately 20g of plant material in a litre of water for thirty minutes. This must be drunk on an empty stomach to kill or stun the worms, followed by the taking of a purge - usually Huaminga - to cause the expulsion of the parasites from the bowels. Huaminga is a local vernacular name for a species of club-moss belonging to the genus Huperzia. If about 50 g of the whole plant of this species is ground and boiled in a litre of water, until the volume is reduced to 250ml, a cupful of resulting decoction, consumed after cooling, acts a drastic purgative. Huaminga is said also to be an anthelmintic in its own right, when prepared as a less concentrated decoction and consumed over a period of several days. [Note : by an oversight, De Feo (2003) lists an 'S. jamesonii' under the heading Solanum. While there IS a binomial Solanum jamesonii, it is likely that the genus De Feo intends is Streptosolen rather than Solanum, as the authors of the name S. jamesonii are given by De Feo as "(Benth.) Miers" (à la Streptosolen) and not "Bitter" (the binomial Solanum jamesonii Bitter is a synonym of Solanum oblongifolium Dunal.)] Chemistry Streptosolen jamesonii has been found to contain alkaloids which are also present in various Nicotiana species and also in Salpiglossis sinuata: nornicotine (principal alkaloid), nicotine and anabasine. Nornicotine has been found to have effects that are initially depressant and subsequently stimulant. It also increases intestinal motility through overall parasympathetic stimulation of the GI tract, which, in combination with its toxicity to parasitic worms, could account for the use of Streptosolen as an anthelmintic. Furthermore, the observation by Ecuadorian cattle-herders of their cattle's possible self-medication by consumption of Streptosolen foliage would have led to the realization that the plant was non-toxic enough to be used as emergency cattle fodder (see above) and could even have the positive benefit of ridding the animals of parasitic worms (re. observation of increased worm-burden in cattle dung). Anabasine is the active principle responsible for deaths from poisoning caused by the leaves of Nicotiana glauca, the Tree