Belladonna black

Deadly nightshade, also known as Atropa belladonna, is a poisonous plant that belongs to the nightshade family (Solanaceae). It is found in Scandinavia, Western and Southern Europe, the Balkans, Asia Minor, North Africa and Iran. It flowers in June/July and the fruit ripens in September. Deadly nightshade grows up to 1.5 m high, the fruits are cherry-sized black, very shiny, sweet-tasting berries. For children, just 3 to 4 berries are fatal, for adults around 10 to 12 berries.

The dried leaves are used phytotherapeutically, as are the dried leaves with flowering and occasionally fruit-bearing branch tips (belladonna leaves - Belladonnae folium).

The black belladonna is a perennial plant that grows to a height of between 50 cm and 150 cm.
The plant has a brown taproot that reaches deep into the soil. The mostly reddish stem grows upright and has fine hairs. The shoots of the branches end with a flower below which there is a bracteole.
The branches are also covered with short hairs. In summer, the deadly nightshade bears green flower buds, brownish-purple flowers, green unripe berries and black berries side by side.

History: Used in the Stone Age as an arrow poison, in ancient times to enhance the effects of alcoholic drinks, in the Middle Ages as an additive in many witches' ointments and aphrodisiacs, also as an abortifacient, externally as a medicinal plant. Since the 18th century as a mydriatic.

Atropa belladonna is the parent plant of Belladonnae folium or radix, the dried leaves with and without flowers and the roots of the plant.

All parts of the plant contain toxic tropane alkaloids in varying concentrations: in the fruit: hyoscyamine(atropine), scopolamine, apoatropine, belladonnine and scopoletin. In the leaves: 0.5 % and 1.5 %, in the roots 0.85 %, in the seeds 0.8 %, in the fruits 0.65 % and in the flower 0.4 % tropane alkaloids.

The genus name Atropa originates from Greek mythology. The Greek goddess Atropos is one of the three goddesses of fate and is the one who symbolically cuts the thread of life.

Effects, undesirable effects incl. therapy: see under Atropine.

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2. https://pflanzen.fnr.de/industriepflanzen/arzneipflanzen/pflanzen-datenbank
3. Montag A (2023) Plants and skin. Springer-Verlag GmbH. P. 973-974 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-63014-3_7
4. https://www.awl.ch/heilpflanzen/atropa_belladonna/tollkirsche.htm