193 ATROPA BELLADONNA 



root (Belladonna Radix) : (I. P.). 1. BELLADONNA FOLIA; the 

 leaves: 2. BELLADONNA RADIX; the root from plants more than 

 two years old : (U. S. P.). 



1. BELLADONNA FOLIA. Belladonna Leaves. Collection and 

 General Characters. The leaves should be collected, as men- 

 tioned in the British Pharmacopoeia, when the fruit has begun to 

 form, as they are then in the greatest perfection, for the reasons 

 stated under the head of Collection in Digitalis purpurea. The 

 leaves of the wild plant are commonly preferred ; but there does 

 not appear to be sufficient reason for this opinion, and Lefort 

 found from the examination of leaves from both wild and culti- 

 vated plants, obtained in the neighbourhood of Paris, that they 

 yielded about the same percentage of their active alkaloid. 



The fresh leaves and young shoots when bruised, exhale a some- 

 what foetid odour, and the expressed juice dropped into the eye 

 dilates the pupil. They have a feeble, bitterish, somewhat acrid 

 taste. According to Squire, 100 lbs of fresh leaves yield 16 Ibs. of 

 dried. The dried leaves have a brownish- green colour above, 

 and are greyish beneath. An infusion dropped into the eye 

 dilates the pupil. They are thin and friable, without any marked 

 odour, but with a disagreeable, faintly bitter, and slightly acrid 

 taste. Belladonna leaves owe their activity entirely to atropia (see 

 Atropia). In the British and Indian pharmacopoeias the fresh 

 leaves with the branches to which they are attached, are directed 

 to be used in the preparation of the extract of Belladonna. The 

 reasons for thus using the branches with the leaves, will be 

 described under Hyoscyamus niger. 



2. BELLADONNA RADIX. Belladonna Root. Collection and 

 General Characters. The root should be collected for drying in 

 the autumn or early spring, and from plants from about two to 

 four years old. It is usually imported from Germany ; but if 

 obtained in a fresh state from cultivated plants, and carefully 

 dried, it is more to be depended upon; and roots about the 

 thickness of the middle finger are to be preferred to those of 

 larger size. 



The dried root occurs in commerce in rough, irregular, branched 



