Solanum nigrum, the European black nightshade or simply black nightshade or blackberry nightshade, is a species of flowering plant in the genus Solanum, native to Eurasia and introduced in the Americas, Australasia, and South Africa.
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Solanum nigrum has been recorded from deposits of the Paleolithic and Mesolithic era of ancient Britain and it is suggested by the botanist and ecologist Edward Salisbury that it was part of the native flora there before Neolithic agriculture emerged.
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Sometimes S nigrum is confused for the more toxic deadly nightshade, which is in a different genus within Solanaceae.
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Solanum nigrum is a highly variable species with many varieties and forms described.
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Some major species within the S nigrum complex are: S nigrum, S americanum, S douglasii, S opacum, S ptychanthum, S retroflexum, S sarrachoides, S scabrum, and S villosum.
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The toxins in S nigrum are most concentrated in the unripe green berries, and immature fruit should be treated as toxic.
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Solanum nigrum has been widely used as a food since early times, and the fruit was recorded as a famine food in 15th-century China.
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In Kenya, among the Abagusii, S nigrum is a vegetable delicacy which when blanched and sauteed or boiled to soften and then salted or sauteed and eaten with Ugali.
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Farmers in the Konso Special Woreda report that because S nigrum matures before the maize is ready for harvesting, it is used as a food source until their crops are ready.
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The Welayta people in the nearby Wolayita Zone do not weed out S nigrum that appears in their gardens since they likewise cook and eat the leaves.
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Solanum nigrum is a widely used plant in oriental medicine where it is considered to be antitumorigenic, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotective, diuretic, and antipyretic.
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Water extracts of 'Solanum nigrum have shown a citotoxic activity in reducing ROS generation of the human MM cell line A-375.
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Solanum nigrum is known to contain solasodine ; a possible commercial source could be via cultivating the hairy roots of this plant.
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