Name: Belladonna officinalis – belladonna likarska (harvesting and storage)
Belladonna (Belladonna) – Atropa belladonna L. Ukrainian name – belladonna likarska, popular names – sleepy fool, German.
Solanaceae family – Solanaceae.
The leaves and roots are used for medicinal purposes.
It is found in Transcarpathia, the Carpathians, the Carpathians, Rostochie-Opole, on the Khotyn Upland and in the mountainous Crimea. It grows in sparse old beech forests, among shrubs, on forest edges, clearings. Rarely forms thickets, often grows in small groups and even single specimens.
There are almost no stocks of raw materials, industrial preparations are impossible. The plant is rapidly disappearing due to deforestation.
Introduced into industrial culture in the state farms of Soyuzlekrasprom. Included in the “Regional Book” of the Soviet Union and the “Chervona Book” of Ukraine.
Belladonna is a perennial herbaceous plant, pubescent with short glandular hairs, with a thick, many-headed, vertical, brownish outside, white inside rhizome and numerous large branched roots. Stem up to 200 cm tall, erect, forked at the top. The leaves are alternate, ovate and oblong-elliptical, entire, narrowed into a short petiole, pointed at the apex, up to 20 cm long and up to 10 cm wide. The upper ones sit in pairs, they are not the same size. Flowers solitary, rather large, 2.5-3.5 cm long, drooping, placed on short pedicels in the forks of the stem and in the axils of the leaves. The calyx is non-falling, green, five-cut. Corolla bell-tubular, 2-3 cm long and up to 1.4 cm wide, with a five-lobed recurved edge, brown-purple or dirty purple in the upper part, with brown-purple veins. The fruit is a round, black, shiny, juicy, multi-seeded berry. Seeds bud or ovoid. Blossoms in July-August, fruits ripen in August-September. All parts of the plant are poisonous.
An unacceptable impurity in the raw materials of belladonna is scopolia carniolia, which inexperienced collectors can collect instead of belladonna.
Leaves are harvested during flowering (June-July), tearing them off with your hands. From one plant can be collected several times as it grows.
The collected leaves will need to be dried immediately, as they warm up very quickly. Dry after preliminary drying under sheds, in attics with good ventilation or in dryers at a temperature of 30-40 °, spreading a thin layer (1-2 cm). The yield of dry raw materials is 14-16%.
According to the Global Fund – X Art. 276, GOST 1996-43 raw material (leaves) consists of individual brittle leaves with petioles brown-green above, gray-green below. The smell is slightly nauseating, narcotic. Taste is not determined (poisonous!). Humidity is not higher than 13%. In raw materials, no more is allowed: yellowed, browned and blackened leaves – 4%, other parts of belladonna – 4, crushed parts (Passing through a sieve with a hole diameter of 3 mm) – 4, organic impurities (parts of other plants) and mineral – 0 each, 5%.
The leaves are packed, pressed, in bales of 50, 70, 100 kg. Storage period up to 2 years. Raw materials are not subject to re-control.
Roots are harvested in autumn (October) or early spring before regrowth begins (April). They dig them with shovels, then shake off the ground, cut off the rhizomes, quickly wash them in cold water. Thick roots are cut lengthwise.
According to the Global Fund – IX Art. 404, GOST 14100-69 raw materials (roots) consist of whole or cut along wrinkled roots up to 23 long and 0.2-2.5 cm thick, grayish outside, yellowish-white inside. The smell is weak, peculiar. Taste is not determined (poisonous!). Humidity is not higher than 13%. In raw materials, more are allowed: roots darkened at a break – 3%, their lignified bases – 3, crushed parts (less than 1 cm) – 3, organic impurities (parts of other plants) – 0.5, mineral – 1%.
Total ash should be no more than 6%, including ash insoluble in 10% hydrochloric acid – 2%. Alkaloids should contain at least 0.5%.
Raw materials are packed in bales of 50 or in bags of 40 kg. The retention period has not been set. Store in a group of potent raw materials, in dry, well-ventilated areas. Storage period 2 years. All parts of the plant contain alkaloids of the tropane group (hyoscyamine, scopolamine, atropine, etc.), methylesculin glycoside. The leaves are used as an antispasmodic and analgesic for gastrointestinal diseases, cholecystitis, cholelithiasis, to excite the nervous system, reduce glandular secretion, dilate the pupil, and relax smooth muscles. They also produce atropine. Used in the form of atropine sulfate, extracts – dry and thick, tinctures. The leaves are part of the anti-asthma collections and a number of complex products.