Ripe berries and cooked leaves of edible strains are used as food in some locales, and plant parts are used as a traditional medicine.

[2] 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.

[5] Black nightshade is a common herb or short-lived perennial shrub, found in many wooded areas, as well as disturbed habitats.

The flowers have petals greenish to whitish, recurved when aged and surround prominent bright yellow anthers.

vulgare[failed verification] — found in cooler regions, has a more spreading habit and its leaves might be more wrinkled compared to the typical subspecies.

[11] Initial symptoms of toxicity include fever, sweating, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, confusion, and drowsiness.

[4] However, in central Spain, the great bustard (Otis tarda) may act as a seed disperser of European black nightshade (Solanum nigrum).

There are ethnobotanical accounts of S. nigrum young leaves and shoots being boiled as a vegetable with the cooking water being discarded and replaced several times to remove toxins.

The thoroughly boiled leaves — although strong and slightly bitter flavours — are used like spinach as horta and in fataya pies and quiches.

Traditionally, the Iraqw people in northern Tanzania have used S. nigrum (manakw) as vegetable for generations, eaten with special ‘ugali’ (xwante), stiff porridge made with corn, millet or sorghum flour.

An ethnobotanical survey conducted in the mid 1990s on the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba indicated that S. nigrum was referred to as vwevwe in Kiswahili.

In South India, the leaves and berries are routinely consumed as food after cooking with tamarind, onion, and cumin seeds.

[21] 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.

[23] In South Africa, the very ripe and hand-selected fruit (nastergal in Afrikaans and umsobo in Zulu) is cooked into a runny purple jam.

"[31] It was a traditional European medicine used as a strong sudorific, analgesic and sedative with powerful narcotic properties, but was considered a "somewhat dangerous remedy".

[31][32] Internal use has fallen out of favor in Western herbalism due to its variable chemistry and toxicity, but it is used topically as a treatment for herpes zoster.

[37] Native Hawaiians use the berries' juice as a laxative, they also take the young leaves boiled to relieve sore throats and coughs.

[citation needed] This plant's leaves are used to treat mouth ulcers that happen during winter periods of Tamil Nadu, India.

In North India, the boiled extracts of leaves and berries are also used to alleviate liver-related ailments, including jaundice.

[40] S. nigrum is a widely used plant in oriental medicine where it is considered to be antitumorigenic, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotective, diuretic, and antipyretic.

[44][45] Water extracts of Solanum nigrum have shown a citotoxic activity in reducing ROS generation of the human MM cell line A-375.

[46] Solanum nigrum is known to contain solasodine (a steroidal glycoalkaloid that can be used to make 16-DPA progenitor); a possible commercial source could be via cultivating the hairy roots of this plant.

"[50] Uttroside B, a saponin, was identified as a bioactive chemotherapeutic agent, against hepatocellular carcinoma, obtained from the methanolic extract of S.

[51] Lankalapalli et al. isolated uttroside B and provided its structure elucidation by derivatization, which afforded an enol ether, and characterized by detailed 2D NMR analysis in this publication.