Petunioideae

Petunioideae is a subfamily of the flowering plant family Solanaceae, the nightshades. It contains thirteen genera, as follows:
The Patagonian genera "Benthamiella", "Combera" and "Pantacantha" merit referral from subfamily Petunioideae to subfamily Goetzeoideae of the Solanaceae.
Ornamental use.
The genera "Brunfelsia", "Plowmania", "Fabiana", "Nierembergia" and "Petunia" furnish garden plants bearing attractive flowers. "Brunfelsia" and "Plowmania" are genera of tropical shrubs requiring glasshouse protection in temperate climate areas; "Fabiana" species are hardy shrubs; "Nierembergia" species are dwarf, hardy herbaceous perennials or sub-shrubs, and "Petunia × atkinsiana" has yielded a huge variety of flower colours, forms and patterns that have made it a favourite summer bedding plant. "Petunia" is by far the best-known genus of the subfamily in popular temperate zone horticulture.
Medicinal use.
"Fabiana imbricata" (Chilean vernacular name "pichi") is used as a diuretic and digestive in the folk medicine of Chile. Studies have revealed it to contain sesquiterpenes possessing gastroprotective properties.
A number of "Brunfelsia" species have played important roles in the folk medicine of peoples indigenous to South America, having been used to treat conditions as diverse as syphilis, rheumatism, yellow fever and snakebite. The roots are the most effective parts of the plants and possess diuretic and sweat-inducing properties.
Medications prepared from "Brunfelsia" species have the curious effect of producing the sensation of chills, this being the rationale for their folk use in the treatment of fevers.
Hallucinogenic use.
Species belonging to the genera "Brunfelsia", and "Petunia" have been employed as entheogens in South America, while the species "Nierembergia hippomanica" has been reported to have toxic and hallucinogen-like effects upon horses and to have similarities in its chemistry to that of the genus "Brunfelsia".The chemistry of "Nierembergia hippomanica" is most unusual for that of a plant belonging to the Solanaceae, in that the species contains (among other classes of toxic compounds) phenethylamine proto-alkaloids more usually associated with cacti and grasses: β-Phenylethylamine, N-Methyltyramine, tyramine, and hordenine have been isolated from it.
The unusual epithet "hippomanica" is a compound of the Greek elements ("hippos") "horse" and ("mania") "insanity" / "frenzy" – hence "sending horses insane". Botanist John Miers references in the species name a plant "hippomanes" of uncertain identity mentioned in the idyll of Theocritus and the works of Theophrastus – so called either because horses were madly fond of it, or because it sent them mad if they fed upon it. The Greek name "hippomanes" was also referenced in the creation of the genus name "Hippomane" for an extremely toxic genus in the Euphorbiaceae.
"Petunia violacea" has been reported to be used as a hallucinogen in Ecuador, where it has the vernacular name "shanín". The drug is said to cause sensations of levitation and flight – a type of hallucination often associated with the use of the more toxic hallucinogenic plants of the deliriant type, e.g. the tropane-containing "Atropa" and "Hyoscyamus" – active constituents of the witches' flying ointments.