Belladonna or belladonna, as it is often called, is a perennial herb plant, the height of which is 1-2 meters. This plant belongs to the Solanaceae family. Belladonna has a strong rhizome with many heads, which resembles a cylinder with a diameter of approximately 8 cm. The roots of the plant are very powerful and branched. The stem of the plant is green (and sometimes with a purple hue), always straight, with many branches.
Belladonna leaves are pointed and egg-shaped, the color of the leaves is dark green. The lower and upper sheets vary in size. The upper leaves are arranged in pairs, but the lower ones, alternately.
You can recognize the belladonna by the flowers: they are very large (3 cm) brown-violet on the outside and dirty yellow inside. Belladonna fruit is a bright black berry that looks like a common cherry in appearance. The berry consists of two nests, it has many seeds. The flavor of the berry is sweet, and the juice is dark purple. The black seeds are approximately 2 mm long, both flat and with an irregular, angular or round surface.
Flowering plants depend on the year of life. For example, if a plant is in the first year of the growing season, then it blooms in August and, if it is older, flowering begins in May and lasts until the end of the growing season. Maturation occurs from July to September.
Belladonna is a very common plant in the mountains of Crimea, the Caucasus and the Carpathians. But still, this poisonous plant grows in Asia Minor, Afghanistan, South America, Pakistan and the United States.
The plant can grow both individually and in the form of thickets on the outskirts of roads, in clearings and forest edges. Belladonna grows in moist, moist and loose soil. Surprisingly, this poisonous and dangerous plant was listed in the Red Book of Russia.
Belladonna belongs to poisonous plants: all parts, including fruits, are poisonous. There were times when people were poisoned with honey, which was produced from belladonna pollen.
Belladonna is very dangerous for children: only two berries of this "crazy cherry" lead to the child's death. But this berry is nothing for birds: the thrush, starlings and other birds can peck this berry safely.
The whole plant contains the alkaloid hiosciamine. Atropine is the main alkaloid of the plant, which has antispasmodic and neurogenic properties. It reduces the tone of the intestines, uterus, bronchial tubes and other smooth muscle organs.
All the alkaloids contained in belladonna improve cardiac function, can dilate the pupils and increase the pressure inside the eye.
The leaves of the plant are used to produce tinctures, tablets, extracts and other drugs for the treatment of various diseases.
On the basis of belladonna, preparations are used that are used as anti-inflammatories, analgesics for ulcers of the intestines and stomach, for pain in the muscles, tuberculosis and even epilepsy.
In ophthalmology, atropine, which was isolated from belladonna, was widely used. But if a person has high eye pressure, then he is contraindicated in the use of belladonna as a means to treat the eyes.
Belladonna is used to poison with toxic substances or fungi.
Small doses of belladonna are used if they want to reduce the secretion of salivary or sweat glands. And also a small dose of this poisonous plant normalizes the motility of the pathways that eliminate bile and urine from the body.
The content of scopolamine was found in the roots of the plant. Scopolamine is a substance used in the treatment of Parkinson's disease.
The juice squeezed from the leaves of the plant helps eliminate age spots, if any, in any area of a person's skin.
