Atropa belladonna commonly known as Belladonna or Deadly Nightshade, is a perennial
herbaceous
plant in the family Solanaceae, native to Europe, North
Africa, and Western Asia. The foliage and berries are extremely toxic. It includes scopolamine
and hyoscyamine
which cause a bizarre delirium and hallucinations,
and are also used as pharmaceutical anticholinergics.
The drug atropine
is derived from the plant.
It has
a long history of use as a medicine, cosmetic, and poison. Before the Middle Ages,
it was used as an anesthetic for surgery; the ancient Romans used it as a
poison (the wife of Emperor Augustus and the wife of Claudius both
used it to murder contemporaries); and predating this, it was used to make
poison-tipped arrows. The genus name "atropa" comes from Atropos, one of
the three Fates in Greek mythology, and the name "bella donna" is
derived from Italian and means "beautiful woman"
because the herb was consumed by women to dilate the pupils of the eyes to make
them appear seductive.
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