Belladonna (Atropa belladonna)
Chemistry, Medical, And Recreational Uses
Chemistry Of Atropa belladonna
Belladonna is a member of the Solanaceae (more commonly known as the nightshade or potato) family of plants. The Solanaceae family also includes brugmansia, capsicum (used to make paprika and chili pepper), eggplant, jimsonweed, mandrake, petunia, potato, tobacco, and tomato plants.
The main chemical components of belladonna are:
Atropine (C17H23NO3)
Hyoscyamine (C17H23NO3)
Atropamine (C17H21NO2)
Belladonnine (C17H21NO2)
Hyoscine (Cl7H17NO4)
Belladonna can be fatal to most carnivorous animals and humans, but the same doses have very little effect upon most birds and plant eating animals. Children are often poisoned by the berries, mistaking them for cherries or other sweet fruit.
In large doses, belladonna acts upon the cerebrospinal system, as showing such symptoms as dilatation of the pupils (mydriasis), presbyopia, obscurity of vision, blindness (amaurosis), visual illusions (phantasms), suffused eyes, occasionally disturbance of hearing (as ringing in the ears, etc.), numbness of the face, confusion of head, giddiness, and delirium.
The mouth and throat become dry, constriction about the throat, nausea, vomiting, swelling, and redness of the face, and sometimes irritation of the urinary organs.
If the dose is very large, the above-named symptoms will be produced, but in a more violent form, with extravagant delirium, followed by sopor (a deep, lethargic, or unnatural sleep). Convulsions are rarely present, when belladonna causes death it is usually while in a coma.
The proper remedies in poisoning by belladonna are the stomach-pump, emetics and purgatives, cold to the head; and in the comatose stage, ammonia internally, with external stimulants, electro-magnetism, etc.
Belladonna and opium appear to exert the opposite effects, especially as regards their action on the brain, the spinal cord, and heart. They can be used as antidotes to each other in cases of overdose and poisoning.
For cases of belladonna overdose, morphine or another opium based drug can be used. For cases of heroin, morphine, and other opioid related overdoses, belladonna can be used.
Medicinal Use Of Atropa belladonna
Scientists and chemists usually use the root or leaves when making belladonna preparations, alkaloid in the root is usually between 0.4% and 0.7% and the leaves usually contain slightly less alkaloid than the root.
Scientists extract the liquid alkaloid from belladonna, which is then made into alcoholic extracts, liniments, suppositories, and other medical preparations. Large doses paralyze the central nervous system, while small doses stimulate it.
Belladonna has been, and is being used as a recreational drug, diuretic, sedative, antispasmodic, and mydriatic. It is used very successfully to treat eye diseases, because of its effect of dilating the pupil.
Atropine, an extract of belladonna is what an eye doctor uses when they put liquid in your eye before testing you for glasses. Atropine has also been used as an antidote to opium, calabar bean, and chloroform poisoning.
It has no action on the voluntary muscles, but the nerve endings in involuntary muscles are paralyzed by large doses, the paralysis finally affecting the central nervous system, causing excitement and delirium.
The various preparations of belladonna have many uses. Locally applied, it lessens irritability and pain, and is used as a lotion, plaster or liniment in cases of neuralgia, gout, rheumatism and sciatica.
As a drug, it specially affects the brain and the bladder. In chronic albuminuria (a condition where urine has more than normal amounts of a protein called albumin), it stimulates the kidneys to healthy action.
Belladonna is one of the most important remedies for bladder and kidney diseases. It stimulates and at the same time relieves irritation of the urinary tract. Both the solid and watery constituents of the urine are increased in amount.
It is the remedy in urinal incontinence in small children when the fault depends upon a poor pelvic circulation or chronic irritability of the bladder. It seems best adapted to that dribbling of urine in the young children.
There has been a marked benefit from minute doses of belladonna in children who urinate every twenty minutes or half hour.
It increases the rate of the heart by some 15 to 45 beats per minute, without lessening its force. This action on body circulation helps those that collapse from pneumonia, typhoid fever and other acute diseases.
Belladonna given in very small doses will protect from the infection of Scarlet fever. It helps ease the pain of a very bad sore throat, and relieves local inflammation and congestion.
Plasters can be applied to injured or sprained parts of the body to limit swelling. A mixture of belladonna plaster, salicylic acid and lead plaster can be applied to corns and bunions.
Plaster made from belladonna can be applied to the heart region to ease pain and distress. The leaves can be added to special cigarettes for relieving spasmodic asthma, and mixtures containing belladonna have been given to children for whooping cough and false croup.
Externally it was formerly used on parts around the eye, to dilate the pupil, before operating for cataract or to relieve internal ocular pressure in ulceration of the cornea.
For these purposes a drop or two of an liquid solution is sometimes placed upon the conjunctiva. The sulphate of atropine has now superseded the use of the extract.
Both locally and internally belladonna is a prompt agent for the relief of photophobia (abnormal sensitivity to light).
The ointment, or extract, has also been applied locally in spasmodic stricture of the urethra, and of the sphincters of the bladder and rectum, in great pain along the female urethra, in strangulated hernia, spasmodic contraction of the uterus, hemorrhoids, etc.
Recreational Use Of Atropa belladonna
Of all psychoactive drugs, alcohol and members included in the same family as belladonna (jimsonweed, mandrake, etc.) have probably been in use the longest. They have been used in almost all parts of the globe for thousands of years.
All continents, except Antarctica, have seen the belladonna and similar alkaloids used by shaman, witches and sorcerers, who take advantage of the sensations of leaving their bodies, soaring through the air, or changing into an animal (in their imagination). It is thought that this is where the witches riding on brooms legend was started.
The chemicals produced by the potato or nightshade family (of which belladonna is a member) can be so terrifying and unpleasant, and the loss of contact with ordinary reality so complete that they are used only with great caution and rarely for pleasure.
For this reason, they are legal and not regarded as a drug abuse problem. They can be bought in small doses with a prescription or in over-the-counter sedatives and pills for asthma, colds, and motion sickness.
They are blockers of acetylcholine receptors called anticholinergic drugs. The acetylcholine receptors control the contraction of skeletal muscles and also play an important role in the chemistry of the brain.
Few if any recreational drug users who ingest plants from the nightshade family (like belladonna, brugmansia, jimsonweed, or mandrake) in large doses will repeat the experience. Reports of a good trip (after consuming a large dose) are almost impossible to come by. Most recreational users report that they cloud rather than clear consciousness, and nausea is a common side effect.
You have to have a certain sort of mind to be able to appreciate the sensations, and most westerners do not have the type of mind that can appreciate belladonna. The shaman and others who used these plants throughout the centuries were not looking to get high.
In traditional societies, a shaman is a person who, usually in an altered state of consciousness, acts as an intermediary between the natural and supernatural worlds to predict and control the future, cure illness, generate miracles, and other similar purposes.
How To Use Atropa belladonna
Smoking: If you are thinking of using belladonna for its psychoactive effects, smoking dried leaves or root in a pipe is recommended. Smoke it by itself and see what you think. If interested, try mixing it with some marijuana and smoking it
Smoking is the safest and mildest way to try the drug for the first time. Effects could be described as mildly pleasant at this dose. Limit intake to a few belladonna joints a day.
Tea: You can make belladonna tea by mixing dried leaves or root with hot water. Let the mixture sit for 5 minutes or more, stirring occasionally. When ready, filter out the plant material with a coffee filter or something similar, and drink.
Mixing one gram of dry plant material with hot water should be tried the first time. You can increase the dose by a gram each time you try, until you find a level you are comfortable with.
Berries: If you want to try eating the berries, try one and see what happens. Some people might be very sensitive to the effects so one berry is suggested.
If you don't experience any bad effects, wait a few days and try eating one more berry than you did the previous time. Do this each time you try, until you find a dose you are comfortable with. Maximum of 10 berries at one time. Wait 4 days between attempts.
In most people, eating one or two berries will cause perceptual changes, things will look different but one can still function. Driving or any other activity that requires good eyesight is not recommended for obvious reasons.
Eating three or four of the berries gives most people a feeling of being stoned and five to ten will cause hallucinations. Belladonna hallucinations are almost always negative. Most users report them as being evil, threatening, terrifying, or something of this nature.
These are general doses and the way you feel may differ. The main effects after eating any amount of berries will last 3-6 hours or longer. The visual effects can last up to 4 days.
Some people have reported eating up to ten of the berries and survived, but children have died from eating just two or three. Ten to twenty will kill most adults. Don't mess around, the difference between feeling stoned, having terrifying hallucinations, and death is 5 or 6 berries.
If you can't find it locally, you can buy belladonna online. Bouncing Bear Botanicals has it in the deadly nightshade section of their site. They sell leaves (foliage) and roots that can be smoked or used to make tea. They ship from the US to most countries. Sometimes they stocks seeds for growing belladonna.
Mild doses might feel slightly pleasant but large doses can mess you up for a few days. An overdose can be fatal. If you want to pursue a relationship with this plant, use extreme caution.
Because opioid drugs like morphine counter-act the effects of belladonna, 5-10 milligrams of morphine (or a similar amount of an opium based drug, taken orally) can ease the user down from a bad experience.
For this reason, morphine and other opium based drugs (oxycodone, hydrocodone, heroin, etc) are wasted when combined with belladonna. Therefore, using any opium based drug is not recommended when taking belladonna.
Collecting Atropa belladonna For Personal Use
The time of collecting and variation of alkaloid in the plant, investigators have drawn the following conclusions: The first year's growth of belladonna contains but half the quantity of atropine present in older plants, and so are unworthy of collection. Young roots contain only hyoscyamine.
The older roots contain both hyoscyamine and atropine, the latter predominating. In young leaves atropine is present, but hyoscyamine is the predominating alkaloid. The length of keeping after gathering appears to have no influence on the alkaloid present.
From the second to the fourth year the quantity of alkaloid is fairly uniform. At these ages, and during the period of flowering, the plants should be collected.
The plant before flowering, does not have much active ingredient, but at the period of flowering the full chemical development is reached and maintained, both in roots and leaves.
Wild-grown belladonna contains a larger quantity of alkaloid than the cultivated kind. The process of flowering and leafing does not exhaust the root of its alkaloid, there being a simultaneous development in the root and leaf; therefore the roots may be gathered at the same time as the leaf.
Belladonna leaves in pressed packages several years old do not show evidence of loss of alkaloids (Lyons). Both the root and leaf of belladonna show great variations in strength, and, as has been said, appearance alone is not a sufficient criterion as to the relative value of one lot as compared with another.
The leaves must be gathered while the plant is in flower. The British Pharmacopoeia directs the leaves (gathered at the beginning of the fruiting season and separated from the stems, and dried with care) of the wild or cultivated plants.
Leaves should be fresh as possible, because older leaves are said to absorb moisture, causing decomposition of the active constituents. They should be dried in a dark with good air circulation. Once dry, the leaves should be stored in airtight container away from light.
Stems and musty leaves should be thrown away if the herb is desired for the preparation of the alkaloids, or if a full-strength preparation is needed.
The leaves release their medical compounds in alcohol or water. The root should be taken up in the spring or late fall from plants at least three years old. You can find an image of the belladonna plant here and the berry here.
copyright © www.a1b2c3.com/drugs/
Books Plants of the Gods:
Their Sacred, Healing and Hallucinogenic Powers
Comprehensive reference work about psychoactive plants. Lists the plant's common name, botanical name, historical ethnography, purpose of use, preparation, chemical composition, and effects. Includes color and black and white photographs, illustrations, and paintings, a bibliography and index.
Plant species discussed include the Fly Agaric mushroom, Atropa (Deadly Nightshade), Yellow and Black Henbane, Mandrake, Cannabis, Ergot, Datura, Iboga, Yopo beans, Ayahuasca, Yage, Brugmansia, Peyote, San Pedro cactus, Morning Glory, Magic Mushrooms and more. Contains six pages of text and several images of Belladonna and related plants.
Plants of the Gods The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants:
Ethnopharmacology and Its Applications
Very nice book and considering the subject matter, it's easy to understand. The botany, history, distribution, cultivation, preparation and dosage of more than 400 psychoactive plants. Over 900 pages with hundreds of black and white illustrations and full color photographs.
Information about almost every plant that has been used for medical, spiritual, or recreational purposes. Includes all the common and most of the less common plant drugs. This is the most thorough plant drug encyclopedia available at the present time. Contains six pages of Belladonna info with several color and black and white images.
The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants
Drug Related Books About Drugs Legal Highs Index Various Drug Articles