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Plant Source Foods
Published in Chuong Pham-Huy, Bruno Pham Huy, Food and Lifestyle in Health and Disease, 2022
Chuong Pham-Huy, Bruno Pham Huy
The list of chemicals obtained from plants and used as medicines is extensive. They are often secondary metabolites of plants including different chemical groups such as flavonoids, terpenoids, alkaloids, glycosides, phenolics, and so on. They are used in modern therapy as well as in traditional medicine (304–306). For example, quinine, an anti-malaria alkaloid, is extracted from the cinchona barks. Digoxin and digitoxin, two cardio-tonic glycosides, are isolated from the plants Digitalis lanata and purpurea, respectively. Morphine and codeine, two alkaloids used as strong analgesic and antitussive drugs, respectively, are obtained from the opium poppy latex. Cocaine, an alkaloid used as local anesthetic, is isolated from Erythroxylum coca leaves. Atropine, an alkaloid used as anticholinergic, is obtained from Atropa belladonna leaves. Paclitaxel or TaxolR, a diterpenoid with strong anticancer activity found in recent years, is isolated from Taxus brevifolia and bacata, a Pacific yew. Despite their toxicity, these drugs are still used today because of their high therapeutic efficacy (304). Other compounds often present in our habitual foods such as menthol from mint leaves, theobromine and theophylline from cocoa and tea, beta-glucan from oat and yeast, and so on, also have therapeutic activity. They are both food and medicine.
Scarlet fever and belladonna
Published in Dinesh Kumar Jain, Homeopathy, 2022
Now we are analyzing treatment of scarlet fever by belladonna. Belladonna produces fever in healthy individuals and it is effective in scarlet fever as told by Hahnemann and which also supported a law of similarity, framed by Hahnemann. Today we know that belladonna drugs are widely distributed in nature, especially in the solanaceae plants. Atropa belladonna yields mainly the alkaloid atropine.
Atropine
Published in Anton C. de Groot, Monographs in Contact Allergy, 2021
Atropine is an alkaloid, originally derived from the plant Atropa belladonna, but the compound is also found in other plants, mainly of the Solanaceae family. Atropine functions as a sympathetic, competitive antagonist of muscarinic cholinergic receptors, thereby abolishing the effects of parasympathetic stimulation. This agent may induce tachycardia, inhibit secretions, and relax smooth muscles. It is indicated for the treatment of poisoning by susceptible organophosphorous nerve agents having anti-cholinesterase activity (cholinesterase inhibitors) as well as organo- phosphorous or carbamate insecticides. In ocular pharmaceuticals, it is used as mydriatic and cycloplegic drug for diagnostic purposes, for the prevention of synechiae in inflammatory processes (e.g. uveitis), for mild amblyopia and serious myopia. Systemic administration is sometimes done in the case of sinus bradycardia or atrioventricular block and as premedication for anesthesia. In pharmaceutical products, atropine is usually employed as atropine sulfate (CAS number 5908-99-6, EC number 200-235-0, molecular formula C34H50N2O11S), occasionally as atropine hydrochloride (1).
Atropine in topical formulations for the management of anterior and posterior segment ocular diseases
Published in Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery, 2021
Ines García Del Valle, Carmen Alvarez-Lorenzo
Atropine is an alkaloid extracted from Atropa belladonna (deadly nightshade), Datura stramonium (jimsonweed), and Hyoscyamus niger (henbane) plants that belong to the Solanaceae family. It is synthetized in the roots, with an alkaloid content that runs between 0.01% and 3% [2]. Atropine acts as a competitive, nonselective muscarinic acetylcholine receptor antagonist, affecting the central and peripheral nervous system by blocking receptors in exocrine glands, smooth and cardiac muscle, ganglia and intramural neurons [3]. According to different studies conducted on animals and humans, this alkaloid is widely distributed in tissues [4] and has a binding affinity constant in the range of 0.4–0.7 nM [5] for all five subtypes of muscarinic acetylcholine receptors (M1 to M5) [6,7]. Therapeutically, atropine has a wide range of indications [2,3]. It is used as premedication for anesthesia and surgical procedures, as antisialagogue to inhibit salivation and excessive secretions, and as antivagal agent to prevent cholinergic effects during surgery [8]. Furthermore, this compound is able to reverse muscle relaxant effects [9].
Anticholinergic syndrome after atropine overdose in a supposedly homeopathic solution: a case report
Published in Clinical Toxicology, 2022
Sabrina Schmoll, Katrin Romanek, Gabriel Zorn, Hans Eiglmeier, Florian Eyer
Extracts of the deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna) and its tropane alkaloid atropine are extensively (and controversially) used in high dilutions in homeopathic medications for the supportive treatment of diseases ranging from sunstroke, infections and inflammatory illnesses to neurological and respiratory conditions [1,2]. Homeopathic decimal dilutions (noted as “D”) are made by taking a “mother tincture” or DØ plant extract in ethanol and repeating a 1:10 dilution a set number of times. For a D4 solution a 1:10 dilution is repeated four times. Homeopathic atropine solutions in dilutions of D4 or higher are exempt from the prescription-only legislation in Germany as they do not contain enough atropine to plausibly have a pharmacological effect.
Prevalence of Stimulant, Hallucinogen, and Dissociative Substances Detected in Biological Samples of NPS-Intoxicated Patients in Italy
Published in Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 2021
Pietro Papa, Antonella Valli, Marcello Di Tuccio, Eleonora Buscaglia, Elena Brambilla, Giulia Scaravaggi, Mariapina Gallo, Carlo Alessandro Locatelli
Tropane alkaloids. Atropine and scopolamine were identified in 38 cases (50% of hallucinogen positive cases) and in 35% of positive cases both molecules were present. This finding would suggest the use of psychoactive plants/herbs (i.e., Atropa belladonna) that contain both alkaloids. Positivity for other NPS emerged only once, in a urine positive for atropine and MDPV. Positive cases were equally distributed within the considered period.