Products
In medicine, drugs with the active ingredient atropine are mainly used. Preparations from the leaves are less common today. In alternative medicine, belladonna is widely used, but mainly in the form of strong homeopathic dilutions.
Stem plant
Belladonna, a member of the nightshade family (Solanaceae), is native to Europe. The genus name is derived from the Greek goddess of fate, Atropos, who cuts the thread of life.
Medicinal drug
Belladonna leaves are usually used as the medicinal drug (Belladonnae folium). They consist of the dried leaves or of the dried leaves with flowering and occasionally fruiting branch tips of L. The pharmacopoeia requires a minimum content of alkaloids, calculated as hyoscyamine. Alcoholic extracts, tinctures, and powders, among others, are prepared from the leaves. For therapeutic purposes, only standardized preparations may be used because it is a poisonous plant with variable tropane alkaloid content. Another medicinal drug is the root or rhizome (Belladonnae radix).
Ingredients
The constituents responsible for the pharmacological effects are the tropane alkaloids such as L-hyoscyamine, atropine and scopolamine (lesser proportion). Atropine is the name given to the racemate of D- and L-hyoscyamine.
Effects
Preparations from belladonna have parasympatholytic (anticholinergic) properties, i.e., they abolish the effects of the parasympathetic nervous system, a part of the autonomic nervous system. The effects are due to competitive antagonism at muscarinic acetylcholine receptors. At high doses, atropine also acts on nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. Pharmacologic Effects:
- Reduction of tear, salivary, sweat, bronchial, and gastric acid secretion.
- Reduction in tone and motility of smooth muscle of the gastrointestinal tract and bladder.
- Bronchodilatation
- Increase in heart rate
- Pupil dilation
- Accommodation inhibition
- Central excitation at higher doses
Fields of application (selection)
- In ophthalmology as a mydriatic (pupil dilating agent, atropine eye drops).
- As an antispasmodic agent in the digestive tract and bile ducts.
- For the prevention of motion sickness (scopolamine).
- As an antidote, for example, against nerve agents, organ phosphates and carbamates (atropine, see under ComboPen).
- Cardiac arrhythmias with bradycardia (atropine).
- For the treatment of bronchial asthma (obsolete!).
- In alternative medicine, for example, in homeopathy and anthroposophic medicine, such as for the treatment of fever.
- Atropine is a precursor of numerous drugs, for example, pethidine or scopolamine butyl bromide.
Abuse
Belladonna can be abused as a hallucinogen and intoxicant. Especially young people experiment with the poisonous plant. Ingestion is life-threatening because intoxication is necessary for hallucinations. There are repeated reports of deaths in connection with such experiments. Belladonna is also used for suicides.
Contraindications
Full precautions can be found in the drug label.
Interactions
Drug-drug interactions are possible with other anticholinergics.
Adverse effects
Possible adverse effects and symptoms of intoxication include with progressive dosing:
- Dry mouth, dry skin and mucous membranes.
- Dilation of the pupils (mydriasis)
- Visual disturbances, accommodation disorders, photophobia.
- Urinary retention, constipation
- Heat sensation, flush (redness of the skin), hyperthermia.
- Tachycardia, palpitations (rapid pulse).
- Hallucinations, confusion, agitation.
- Delirium, fever
- Convulsions
- Coma, cardiac arrest, respiratory arrest, death
Accidental poisonings are always observed because the fruits look appealing and taste sweet when eaten. They can also occur as a result of improper drug administration.