In Mesoamerican thought, plants possessed not only utilitarian functions but also ontological qualities linked to the gods, healing practices, and morality. Some, such as peyote, ololiuhqui, and toloache, are regarded as “plants of power,” capable of altering human perception, generating visions, and establishing contact between humans, gods and ancestors. This was attributed to their potent psychoactive effects, which induce hallucinations, amnesia, and confusion. The use of toloache (Datura stramonium) and tlápatl (Datura metel) was particularly prominent in ritual, therapeutic, and initiatory contexts, since it was believed that the plants of this genus were able to heal or afflict, to reveal or confuse. Today, some healers employ toloache as an analgesic and anti-inflammatory remedy, as well as for the treatment of respiratory, dental, and skin ailments. It is also commonly used in love magic and enchantment rituals.
In Book XI of the Florentine Codex and in the General History, Friar Bernardino de Sahagún mentions two names for toloache (tolohuaxihuitl): tlápatl and míxitl. The former is described as a tall plant with white flowers, black seeds, and a foul odor. Its effects include loss of appetite and what Sahagún describes as “permanent madness.” As a remedy, tlápatl was used to treat gout, chills, rheumatism, and other ailments associated with coldness and with aquatic entities. Míxitl, for its part, was employed to treat the same illnesses, and its effects included fatigue or the inability to move or speak. Both tlápatl and míxitl are terms that refer not only to the plant itself but also to the loss of physical and moral judgment. Discussing the virtues of men and women, Sahagún remarks that the effects of toloache render young people “restless, immodest, shameless, excessively adorned, panting, foul-mouthed, twisted in speech, slanderous, and presumptuous.”
Throughout the Americas, as well as in Asia and the West, where the plant has been introduced, it has been associated with witchcraft and shamanic activity. In Europe, toloache was credited with granting witches the power of flight and facilitating contact with other worlds. Among contemporary Wixárika (Huichol) communities, Datura and other plants of the Solandra genus, (known as kieri,) are employed in rites of passage for young people. Participants consume a tea prepared from the seeds in order to induce visions that will reveal their future social role. In mythology, peyote (jíkuri) stands in opposition to kieri, which is associated with sorcerers, madness, and the infliction of harm upon others; this opposition explains why the two plants are generally not used together.
Toloache functions as a mediator between worlds, a bearer of visions, and a healer, both physical and spiritual. Its significance lies in its capacity to articulate these dimensions. Its ritual and historical use reveals a sophisticated understanding of the body, illness, and the nature of the cosmos