Belladonna
(Atropa belladonna L., Solanaceae)
Also Called: Deadly Nightshade, Dwale, Devil's Cherries.
Description:A Perennial plant with a thick, creeping, whitish,
fleshy rootstock sends up an erect, leafy stem that usuallysplits into three
branches and attains a height of 50-200cm (20-80 in)
The dull green, ovate leaves with acute apex, hairy, up to 20cm (8in) long,
grow in pairs, one leaf being half as large as the other.
Belladonna flowers are solitary, axillary, bell-shaped, and externally dull
brown to dark purple in colour, internally dull yellowish-brown with purple
veins, corolla up to 2.5cm (1in) long.
The fruit is a sweet-tasting, black, shiny berry about the size of a cherry,
at first green then black; its juice is violet.
Flowering: June August,
Parts Used: Root, leaves, tops, berries
Habitat, Cultivation and Collection: Belladonna is a perennial
plant found in pastures, ruins, and waste places, mountain forests, woods
and clearings on calcareous soils throughout much of Europe and western
Asia.
Native but rather rare in England and Wales on chalk and limestone.
Cultivated mainly in commercial quantities from seeds or from splitting rootstocks;
planted out 60x60cm (2x2ft), For the first 3-5 years, only the leaves and
young shoots are collected when the plant is in flower.
After 3-5 years the roots may also be collected.
Drying is in sunlight or about 60°C (140°F).
Yield: 10-25kg (22 b5lb) of dried leaves per are (120 sq yd).
Constituents and Action: Belladonna leaf and root contain
highly poisonous alkaloids, mainly hyoscyamine.
In medicinal doses it is used in the treatment of intestinal and biliary colic,
it reduces secretions e.g. of the salivary and sudorific glands, it dilates
the pupil.
Antispasmodic, calmative, diaphoretic, diuretic, narcotic.
The narcotic action of belladonna can produce paralysis by affecting the central
nervous system.
Usage: Belladonna should be administered only under medical supervision for the treatment of nervous diarrhoea, also for constipation, the treatment of enuresis, for diseases of the eye, etc.
CAUTION: All parts of the plant are extremely
poisonous.
Large doses cause great excitement followed by somnolence and may be fatal.
The fruits contain the same alkaloids.
