Belladonna poison and antidote pair
Belladonna (chemical name Atropine) is an extract of the Deadly Nightshade (Atropa belladonna), Jimson Weed (Datura stramonium) and Mandrake (Mandragora officinarum) plants.
Belladonna (chemical name Atropine) is an extract of the Deadly Nightshade (Atropa belladonna), Jimson Weed (Datura stramonium) and Mandrake (Mandragora officinarum) plants.
Evidence suggests Atropine has been used for centuries throughout the world as an analgesic, anaesthetic, for cosmetic reasons and as a poison, in high doses.
Cleopatra, in the last century BC, and other women during the renaissance, used atropine for pupil dilation, which was seen as desirable in those times. In France this practice resumed briefly in the 19th and 20th century.
Physostigmine is the antidote to the Belladonna poison. Also known as eserine, the antidote is a plant extract that occurs in the African Calabar bean, éséré.
