Atropa belladona: The nightshadeWhat might a person bothered by intense gas, or flatulence to be blunt, do in today's society? Maybe they would visit some sort of “health food store” for some type of common natural remedy. Often the directors of such stores recommend taking comprey tea to alleviate the problem. However, after taking just such a mixture of powdered tea and water, one man felt dizzy, agitated, confused, and had trouble urinating. His pupils dilated, he had a rapid heartbeat and his skin was hot and dry. After he was admitted to hospital, doctors concluded that his herbal tea was "contaminated" by Atropa belladona...the nightshade.(11)This highly poisonous plant was named after Theophrastus in the third century BC and was called "Theophrastus' Mandragora ". Its English name, Dwaule, comes from the Dutch word dwaul, meaning to wander or rave.(1) It is a perennial herb and one of the most important species of the nightshade family. Because it is so poisonous it was given the name Atropos, which is the Greek word for unyielding. Another meaning is that it refers to "one of the three Fates who cut the thread of life".(2)Taxonomically, Atropa belladona is classified in the Solanaceae, a family that also includes the common potato, tobacco and chili pepper. This species was probably native to southern Europe and Asia, but is now naturalized in many parts of the world. The plant itself is between two and six feet tall. Its green berries change to a shiny purplish black as the plant matures. Some say the berry is sweet and others say it has a bitter taste, but all agree that the size is like that of the common cherry. For many, the entire plant has a very nauseating odor. The plant also has a thick root, a five-lobed calyx, simple, ovate and alternate leaves, and solitary bell-shaped flowers. Today, belladona is a very important plant for science and medicine due to its chemical content. Dioscorides knew the active constituent of this species already in the first century, but it was not “discovered” until another eighteen hundred years. In 1809 the chemical was isolated, and in 1819 it was classified as an "alkaloid". Today we know that belladona contains atropine, scopolomine and hyoscyamine. According to the US Pharmacopoeia, "atropine is extremely poisonous."(2) It is so potent that a dilution of just 1 part in 130,000 parts of water is enough to dilate the pupil of a cat's eye..