Skip to main content

Angel's trumpets (Brugmansia)

Cubung gunung or angel's trumpets or Brugmansia are plant genera in Solanaceae, woody shrubs, large flowers that are pendulous and fragrant at night. Seven officially recorded species in this genus are Brugmansia arborea, Brugmansia aurea, Brugmansia insignis, Brugmansia sanguinea, Brugmansia suaveolens, Brugmansia versicolor and Brugmansia vulcanicola.

The Brugmansia species contain tropane alkaloids of the type that have lethal nighthade toxicity. Large bushes or small trees, semi-woody stems, multiple branches and 3-11 m tall. The leaves are arranged along the stem, 10-30 cm long and 4-18 cm wide and often covered with fine hair.

Dlium Angel's trumpets (Brugmansia)

The flowers are large, pendulous, trumpet-shaped, 14-50 cm long and 10-35 cm wide, white, yellow, pink, orange, green or red. Most have a strong aroma at night to attract pollinator moths. Brugmansia sanguinea is not fragrant but red flowers are favored by hummingbirds.

Cubung gunung contain important alkaloids including scopolamine, hyoscyamine, and atropine which have been proven as medical values for spasmolytic, anti-asthmatic, anticholinergic, narcotics, and anesthetic properties, although many of these alkaloids have been synthetically synthesized.

Angel's trumpets are traditionally used in many cultures in medical preparation and as an entheogen in religious or spiritual ceremonies. Traditional external uses include treating aches and pains, dermatitis, orchitis, arthritis, rheumatism, headaches, infections, and as anti-inflammatory.



Very low internal use includes treatments for stomach and muscle diseases, decongestants, to excrete parasites and as a sedative. Traditional healers use Brugmansia for initiation, divination, and black magic rituals.

Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Solanales
Family: Solanaceae
Subfamily: Solanoideae
Tribe: Datureae
Genus: Brugmansia
Species: Brugmansia arborea, Brugmansia aurea, Brugmansia insignis, Brugmansia sanguinea, Brugmansia suaveolens, Brugmansia versicolor and Brugmansia vulcanicola.

Popular Posts

Six new species forming the Sumbana species group in genus Nemophora Hoffmannsegg 1798 from Indonesia

NEWS - Sumbawa longhorn ( Nemophora sumbana Kozlov, sp. nov.), Timor longhorn ( Nemophora timorella Kozlov, sp. nov.), shining shade longhorn ( Nemophora umbronitidella Kozlov, sp. nov.), Wegner longhorn ( Nemophora wegneri Kozlov, sp. nov.), long brush longhorn ( Nemophora longipeniculella Kozlov, sp. nov.), and short brush longhorn ( Nemophora brevipeniculella Kozlov, sp. nov.) from the Lesser Sunda Islands in Indonesia. The Lesser Sunda Islands consist of two parallel, linear oceanic island chains, including Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Flores, Sumba, Sawu, Timor, Alor, and Tanimbar. The oldest of these islands have been continuously occurring for 10–12 million years. This long period of isolation has allowed significant in situ diversification, making the Lesser Sundas home to many endemic species. This island chain may act as a two-way filter for organisms migrating between the world's two great biogeographic regions, Asia and Australia-Papua. The recognition of a striking cli...

Banded dragonfish (Akarotaxis gouldae) diverged from Akarotaxis nudiceps 780,000 years ago

NEWS - A new species of dragonfish, Akarotaxis gouldae or banded dragonfish, off the western Antarctic Peninsula by researchers at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science at Gloucester Point, the University of Oregon at Eugene, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, highlights the unknown biodiversity and fragile ecosystems of the Antarctic. A. gouldae was named in honor of the Antarctic Research and Supply Vessel (ARSV) Laurence M. Gould and crew. The larval specimen was collected while trawling for zooplankton and was initially thought to be the closely related Akarotaxis nudiceps hundreds of thousands of years ago. DNA comparisons with A. nudiceps specimens held in collections at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Yale University, and the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle in Paris showed significant variation in mitochondrial genes that suggested the larval sample was a distinct species. Andrew Corso of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and colle...

Bush sorrel (Hibiscus surattensis)

Bush sorrel ( Hibiscus surattensis ) is a plant species in Malvaceae, annual shrub, crawling on the surface or climbing, up to 3 meters long, thorny stems, green leaves, yellow trumpet flowers, grows wild in forests and canal edges, widely used for vegetables and treatment. H. surattensis has stems with spines and hairs, branching and reddish green. Petiole emerges from the stem with a straight edge to the side, up to 11 cm long, sturdy, thorny, hairy and reddish green. The leaves have a length of 10 cm, width of 10 cm, 3-5 lobed, each has a bone in the middle with several pinnate veins, sharp tip, sharp and jagged edges, wavy, stiff, green surface. Flowers up to 10 cm long, trumpet-shaped, yellow with a purple or brown or red center, solitary, axillary. Epicalyx has forked bracts, linear inner branches, spathulate outer branches. Stalks up to 6-7 cm. The seeds have a length of 3-3.5 mm and a width of 2.5 mm. Bush sorrels grow in pastures, marshes, abandoned fields and plantations, ...