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Atropa acuminata Royle

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Botanical Name : Atropa acuminata Royle
Family : Solanaceae
Subfamily: Solanoideae
Tribe: Hyoscyameae.
Genus: Atropa
Species: Atropa acuminata
Synonyms:
Atropa lutescens Jacq. ex C.B. Clarke in Hook.f., , Fl. Brit. India vol. 4, 241. 1885.
Atropa belladonna var. flava Pater in Pharm. Zentralh. vol. 63, 77. 1922.
Atropa bella-donna var. lutea Döll , Flora Grossh. Baden vol. 2, 770. 1859.
Atropa pallida Bornm. in Beih. Bot. Centralbl. vol. 33, 305. 1915.

Common Names :Belladona, Jharka, Jalgi, Deadly night shade

Habitat :The species is native to Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia, and has become naturalized in parts of North America. In areas where it has become naturalized it can often be found in shady, moist areas with a limestone-rich soil. The name bella donna is derived from Italian and means “beautiful woman”; E. Iran, E. Afghanistan, eastwards to Kashmir, Mongolia.

Description:
It is a perennial herbaceous plant grows  up to 1.6 m tall, branched. Stem and branches fistular, young shoots puberulous. Leaves 8-17 x 4.5-8.0 cm, elliptic-lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, cuneate. Petiole up to 20 mm long. Calyx 9-15 mm long, up to 20 mm in fruit, ± cupular, puberulous; lobes 6-10 mm long, ovate-acute, unequal, persistent. Corolla 20-23 mm long, yellow; lobes obtuse. Stamens included. Anthers c. 3 mm long, oblong filaments 10-11 mm long. Berry globose, 10 mm broad black when ripe. Seeds subreniform, 2 mm long, reticulate, foveolate, brown.

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Medicinal Uses:
All parts of the plant contain the alkaloids atropine, hyoscyamine and bellodonnine, which are used as a sedative, antispasmodic, in convulsive disorders and as an antidote for poisoning. The black berries are very poisonous and cause delirium and dilation of the pupils.

The drug atropine is produced from the foliage, which along with the berries are extremely toxic, with hallucinogenic properties.

There is currently insufficient scientific evidence to recommend the use of belladonna for any condition, although some of its components have accepted medical uses. The alkaloid l-atropine was purified from belladona in the 1830s, enabling studies of the autonomic nervous system leading to the recognition of the function of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Atropine reverses the effects of poisoning by organophosphate nerve agents used for chemical warfare. Atropine is also widely used as a cardiac medication to increase the heart rate of patients suffering from bradycardia.

Donnatal, a prescription pharmaceutical approved in the United States by the FDA to “provide peripheral anticholinergic/antispasmodic action and mild sedation”, is a phenobarbital formulation also containing alkaloids derived from belladonna. It is also labeled as not being tested for effectiveness in the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome and acute enterocolitis and as an adjunctive therapy in the treatment of duodenal ulcers.

Alternative medicine
“A. belladonna” has been used in traditional treatments for centuries for an assortment of conditions including headache, menstrual symptoms, peptic ulcer disease, histaminic reaction, inflammation, and motion sickness. Homeopathic preparations with the name “belladonna” have been sold as treatments for various conditions.

Recreational drug
“Atropa belladonna”, along with related plants such as jimson weed, has occasionally been used as a recreational drug because of the vivid hallucinations and delirium that it produces. These hallucinations are most commonly described as very unpleasant, however, and recreational use is considered extremely dangerous because of the high risk of unintentional fatal overdose.

Folklore
In the past, it was believed that witches used a mixture of belladonna, opium poppy, and other plants, typically poisonous (such as monkshood and poison hemlock) in flying ointment they applied to help them fly to gatherings with other witches. Carlo Ginzburg and others have argued that flying ointments were preparations meant to encourage hallucinatory dreaming; a possible explanation for the inclusion of belladonna and opium poppy in flying ointments concerns the known antagonism between tropane alkaloids of belladonna (specifically scopolamine) and opiate alkaloids in Papaver somniferum (specifically morphine), which produces a dream-like waking state. This antagonism was known in folk medicine, discussed in eclectic (botanical) medicine formularies   and posited as the explanation of how flying ointments might have actually worked in contemporary writing on witchcraft.The antagonism between opiates and tropanes is the original basis of the Twilight Sleep that was provided to Queen Victoria to deaden pain as well as consciousness during childbirth, and which was later modified so that isolated alkaloids were used instead of plant materials, the whole belladonna herb especially being notable for its unpredictability of effect and toxicity.


Click to see :

*Improvement of sexual destination in Atropa acuminata Royle (Solanaceae)–a critically endangered medicinal plant of Northwestern Himalaya.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19069863

*Pakistan Journal of Biological Science

Click to access 778-782.pdf

Other Uses:
Cosmetics : The common name “belladonna” originates from its historic use by women – “Bella Donna” is Italian for “beautiful lady.” Drops prepared from the belladonna plant were used to dilate women’s pupils, an effect considered attractive.

Today it is known that the atropine in belladonna acts as an antimuscarinic, blocking receptors in the muscles of the eye that constrict pupil size.

] Belladonna is currently rarely used cosmetically, as it carries the adverse effects of causing minor visual distortions, inability to focus on near objects, and increased heart rate. Prolonged usage was reputed to cause blindness.


Toxicity

Belladonna is one of the most toxic plants found in the Western hemisphere. All parts of the plant contain tropane alkaloids. The berries pose the greatest danger to children because they look attractive and have a somewhat sweet taste. The consumption of two to five berries by children and ten to twenty berries by adults can be lethal. The root of the plant is generally the most toxic part, though this can vary from one specimen to another. Ingestion of a single leaf of the plant can be fatal to an adult.

The active agents in Belladonna, atropine, hyoscine (scopolamine), and hyoscyamine, have anticholinergic properties. The symptoms of belladonna poisoning include dilated pupils, sensitivity to light, blurred vision, tachycardia, loss of balance, staggering, headache, rash, flushing, dry mouth and throat, slurred speech, urinary retention, constipation, confusion, hallucinations, delirium, and convulsions,

Disclaimer:
The information presented herein is intended for educational purposes only. Individual results may vary, and before using any supplements, it is always advisable to consult with your own health care provider.


Resources:

http://species.wikimedia.org/wiki/Atropa_acuminata
http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=5&taxon_id=250081287
http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/taxon.pl?417482
http://en.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/134656
http://vaniindia.org.whbus12.onlyfordemo.com/herbal/plantdir.asp

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Herbs & Plants

Belladonna (Nightshade, Deadly)

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Botanical Name :Atropa belladonna or Atropa bella-donna,
Family: Solanaceae
Genus: Atropa
Species: A. belladonna
Kingdom: Plantae
Order: Solanales

Other name:–Nightshade, Deadly

Synonyms:-Belladonna. Devil’s Cherries. Naughty Man’s Cherries. Divale. Black Cherry. Devil’s Herb. Great Morel. Dwayberry.

Parts Used—Root, leaves, tops.

Habitat:
—Widely distributed over Central and Southern Europe, South-west Asia and Algeria; cultivated in England, France and North America.
It is not nearly as common in the wild as many field guides would suggest. This is because it is readily attacked by mint flea beetles Longitarsus waterhousei and has a low tolerance for direct sunlight. In areas where it has become naturalized it can often be found in shady, moist areas with a limestone-rich soil.

Description:

The Belladonna has dull green leaves and bell-shaped flowers that are an unremarkable shade of purple, which yield black, shiny berries measuring approximately 1 cm in diameter. The berries are sweet, but most of their alkaloids are in the seed.

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It is an herbaceous shrub, and can grow to be approximately one metre tall. The leaves have an oily, “poison ivy”-like feel and can cause vesicular pustular eruptions if handled carelessly. Many animals, such as rabbits, birds and deer, seem to eat the plant without suffering harmful effects, though dogs and cats are affected. Many reports suggest that people have been poisoned by eating animals which have previously eaten Belladonna, though this has not been verified.

Germination is often difficult due to the presence of germination inhibitors in the seeds. Belladonna is not common as a garden plant, and is considered a weed in some areas. It is not a very hardy perennial and is sensitive to being transplanted. Germination requires several weeks in warm, moist, absolutely sterile soil, usually far from normal garden conditions.

The root is thick, fleshy and whitish, about 6 inches long, or more, and branching. It is perennial. The purplishcoloured stem is annual and herbaceous. It is stout, 2 to 4 feet high, undivided at the base, but dividing a little above the ground into three – more rarely two or four branches, each of which again branches freely.

First-year plants grow only about 1 1/2 feet in height. Their leaves are often larger than in full-grown plants and grow on the stem immediately above the ground. Older plants attain a height of 3 to 5 feet, occasionally even 6 feet, the leaves growing about 1 to 2 feet from the ground.

The flowers, which appear in June and July, singly, in the axils of the leaves, and continue blooming until early September, are of a dark and dingy purplish colour, tinged with green, large (about an inch long), pendent, bell-shaped, furrowed, the corolla with five large teeth or lobes, slightly reflexed. The five-cleft calyx spreads round the base of the smooth berry, which ripens in September, when it acquires a shining black colour and is in size like a small cherry. It contains several seeds. The berries are full of a dark, inky juice, and are intensely sweet, and their attraction to children on that account, has from their poisonous properties, been attended with fatal results.

Cultivation
-Belladonna herb and root are sold by analysis, the value depending upon the percentage of alkaloid contained. A wide variation occurs in the amount of alkaloid present. It is important, therefore, to grow the crop under such conditions of soil and temperature as are likely to develop the highest percentage of the active principle.

Constituents: atropine,belladonnine ,choline,esculetin,hyoscyamine,nicotine ,scopolamine,tropine ,umbelliferone

Medicinal Action and Uses:
Narcotic, diuretic, sedative, antispasmodic, mydriatic. Belladonna is a most valuable plant in the treatment of eye diseases, Atropine, obtained during extraction, being its most important constituent on account of its power of dilating the pupil.

Atropine will have this effect in whatever way used, whether internally, or injected under the skin, but when dropped into the eye, a much smaller quantity suffices, the tiny discs oculists using for this purpose, before testing their patient’s sight for glasses, being made of gelatine with 1/50000 grain of Atropine in each, the entire disk only weighing 1/50 grain.

Scarcely any operation on the eye can safely be performed without the aid of this valuable drug. It is a strong poison, the amount given internally being very minute, 1/200 to 1/100 grain. As an antidote to Opium, Atropine may be injected subcutaneously, and it has also been used in poisoning by Calabar bean and in Chloroform poisoning. It has no action on the voluntary muscles, but the nerve endings in involuntary muscles are paralysed by large doses, the paralysis finally affecting the central nervous system, causing excitement and delirium.

Cosmetics:
The name belladonna originates from the historic use by women (Bella Donna is Italian for beautiful lady) to dilate their pupils; an extract of belladonna was used as eye drops as part of their makeup preparations. The Belladonna toxin’s atropine content had the effect of dilating the pupil, thus making their eyes supposedly more attractive. It is now known that atropine has anticholinergic activity – by blocking the ability of the iris to constrict, mydriasis results. Dilated pupils are considered more attractive (especially with females) because pupils normally dilate when a person is aroused, thus making eye contact much more intense than it already is. It had the adverse effect of making their vision a little blurry and making their heart rates increase. Prolonged usage was reputed to cause blindness.

Recreational drug:
Occasionally, the plant is used for recreational purposes: it is consumed in the form of either a tea or simply raw, which can produce vivid hallucinations, described by many as a ‘living dream’. Upon consumption of this plant, the user will experience all the severe, adverse anticholinergic effects before hallucinating and continue to do so while hallucinating. Use for recreational purposes is considered dangerous because of the risk of accidental overdose.
Modern medicine
The plant is an important source of atropine, which is an effective antidote to the effects of poisoning by cholinesterase inhibitors such as Parathion and Malathion. Atropine will also reverse the effects of poisoning by nerve agents designed for chemical warfare. In Europe, the plant is specifically cultivated for this purpose.

Optometrists and ophthalmologists use atropine for pupil dilation in eye examinations, though the dose used is small. Atropine degrades slowly, typically wearing off in 2 to 3 days, so tropicamide and phenylephrine is generally preferred as a mydriatic. Atropine is contraindicated in patients predisposed to narrow angle glaucoma.

Belladonna (as Atropa Belladonna Extract) can also be found in some over-the-counter cold and flu medicines (in small amounts) due to its pseudoephedrine-like qualities of clearing up nasal and other passages where mucus forms.

Alternative Medicine
Homeopathy claims Belladonna can cure or treat a variety of afflictions, including conjunctivitis, so long as the ingested preparation is so dilute as to have very few, if any, molecules of Belladonna left therein.

Different Uses:

Eye disorders: Belladonna extracts are employed to dilate the pupil of eye for age tests and eye surgery. Extracts of it’s root and leaf are used to treat spasms and colic like pain in the gastrointestinal trac and bile duct.

Brain & nervous system: Belladonna affects the brain and the central nervous system.It disrupts the effect of acetylcholine which is chemical messenger in the nervous system.

Antispasmodic
: Belladonna is an antispasmodic and can be used as a local anesthetic.

Thyroid disorders : Minute dose of belladonna can be used to treat scarlet fever and thyroid disorders as a Homeopathic medicine. Pharmacologists have also found sedative effect and narcotic qualities in belladonna. It is an ingredient in prescription drugs such as Donnatal and Laugin.

Precautions:
Belladonna should not be used by persons with narrow -angle glaucoma.It is also contraindicated for men with prostate problems.Over dose of belladonna can cause red and dry skin, dry mouth, prolonged dilation of the pupils, rapid heart beat,restlessness,hallucinations and problematic urinating.It can magnify the effects of prescription drugs such as Amatadine and Quinidine.

Powdered and extracts of belladonna are available in drug stores. It can be used as ingredients in prescription drugs.

Disclaimer:
The information presented herein is intended for educational purposes only. Individual results may vary, and before using any supplements, it is always advisable to consult with your own health care provider.

Help taken from:http://en.wikipedia.org, www.botanical.com and Miracles of Herbs  and http://www.anniesremedy.com/herb_detail209.php

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