Belladonna is a perennial highly poisonous herbaceous plant from the nightshade family (Solanaceae). Other names: common belladonna, rubuha, sleepy dope, mad berry, mad cherry
Description:
This herbaceous perennial plant grows to a height of 1-2 m. The stem is tall green, branched at the top, straight and thick, juicy. The leaves are short-petiolate, ovate or oval, 15-20 cm long. The flowers are solitary, large, drooping, located in the axils of the upper leaves, bell-shaped, purple (sometimes yellow) in color. Flowering period from June to late autumn. The fruit is a spherical black berry, with a large number of seeds in purple juice. It grows in North Africa (Algeria, Morocco), Central, Southern, Eastern and Western Europe, in the Crimea, the Caucasus, Asia Minor (Turkey, Syria). It grows in beech, oak, fir and hornbeam forests, sometimes at an altitude of 1000 m above sea level. It is grown in culture in the Krasnodar Territory of Russia and in the Crimea.
Contains active substances:
The leaves, as well as other parts of this plant, contain tropane alkaloids, namely atropine and -hyoscyamine. There is also hyoscyamine N-oxide, -hyoscine (scopolamine), apoatropine (atropamine), belladonin, tropine, chelaradin, traces of nicotine. The aerial part contains flavonoids, oxycoumarins.
Medicinal use:
Belladonna leaves are contained in anti-asthmatic preparations, they are used to make a tincture, which, in turn, is already included in all kinds of products, for example, Zelenin drops. Dry and thick extracts are included in the composition of such products as Becarbon, Urobesal, Belloid. All products have an antispasmodic, analgesic effect. It is used for stomach ulcers, duodenal ulcers and other diseases accompanied by spasms of smooth muscles of the abdominal organs. In India and other neighboring countries, it is used along with A. belladonna, its variety K. pointed (Indian belladonna) – A. acuminata Royle ex Lindley. Grows in the Himalayas, cultivated in the Kashmir Valley.