Leonhart Fuchs (1501–1566), Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778)
Belladonna, or “beautiful lady,” was the objective of sixteenth-century Italian women, who squeezed the juice of the plant’s berries into their eyes to achieve alluring widened pupils. Commonly called the deadly nightshade, the Swedish naturalist Linnaeus scientifically classified this plant Atropa belladonna in honor of the Greek goddess Atropos, the oldest of the three Fates, who cut the threads of life.
The belladonna plant was well known and respected by the ancient Hindus and Greeks, who employed it for medical purposes, some of which continued into the twentieth century. In addition, it enjoyed favor among ancient Roman and medieval poisoners and was a component of witches’ flying ointments. In his classic book, De Historia Stirpium (1542), Leonhart Fuchs, German physician and a founding father of botany, included a description of belladonna, among hundreds of other medicinal plants.
Belladonna is a member of the Solanaceae or “potato” family, a highly varied group of plants that include ornamentals (petunia, matrimony vine), foods (potato, tomato, eggplant, peppers), and drugs such as mandrake. The belladonna plant contains generous quantities of the alkaloids atropine, scopolamine (hyoscine), and hyoscyamine, which serve as the basis for its medical and poisonous properties. The belladonna plant is indigenous to central and southern Europe and is cultivated in England, Germany, and the United States. All parts of the plant are potentially toxic because of the presence of the alkaloids. Its berries are sweet and colorfully attractive to children, often with fatal consequences.
Over the years, pharmaceutical preparations of this plant’s leaf and root have been used to treat peptic ulcers and spastic disorders of the intestinal tract, including diarrhea. Isolation of the active alkaloids from their natural sources during the nineteenth century and, in some cases, improvement by chemists led to the availability of more specific drugs. Among the first of the homeopathic remedies in the 1790s, belladonna continues to be recommended for fever reduction and relief of headaches, labor pain, and pain in teething children.
SEE ALSO Mandrake (c. 200 BCE), Witches’ Flying Ointments (1456), Homeopathic Medicine (1796), Alkaloids (1806), Atropine (1831), Scopolamine (1881).
These colorful, enticing berries contain high concentrations of the alkaloids atropine and scopolamine, which when ingested by children can cause severe toxicity and death.