The specific name belladonna means ‘beautiful woman’, reflecting the fact that the shiny black fruits of this plant were once used by Italian women to enhance their attractiveness. They dropped extracts of the juice into their eyes, causing the pupils to dilate. The fruits contain several powerful alkaloids including atropine (hence the generic name) that inhibit the action of parasympathetic nerves. Atropine is still in use by ophthalmologists, who often need to dilate the pupils in order to have a clear view of the retina behind. They also use it therapeutically in cases of inflammation affecting the internal structures of the eye. In such cases dilation can help prevent permanent damage to the eye. I myself was prescribed atropine eyedrops in the 1970s. As well as dilating the pupil, the drug causes blurred vision, so I was glad that the inflammation I suffered was in one eye only and I was still able to read with the untreated eyed.

The alkaloids in deadly nightshade also account for its ‘spasmolytic’ action. Extracts of the plant can be given internally in very low doses, to relieve painful spasm affecting internal organs such as the gut and the ureters. I must emphasise here that the plant is toxic in all but the smallest doses and should on no account be tried as a home remedy!

Side effects include a dry mouth and racing heart. Higher doses can cause hallucinations, coma and death.

Herbalists retain their right to prescribe deadly nightshade, along with several other potent herbal remedies, under legislation passed in the early 1970s. However, this legislation is flawed because, despite negotiating over many years with successive governments, herbalists have yet to gain statutory regulation. Thus there is no legal definition of a herbalist. If this situation remains unchanged, trained herbalists could lose their access to many valued remedies when new European medicines legislation comes into force in 2011.

Deadly nightshade is not common in Suffolk, perhaps because it favours chalky soils. However Mabey describes a pale-flowered variety that occurs on a number of sites in Felixstowe. Francis Simpson is said to have removed the berries from these plants, lest they be uprooted in the name of ‘Health and Safety’.

References
Bartram, T. (1995). Bartram’s Encyclopaedia of Herbal Medicine. Robinsons, London.

European Herbal and Traditional Medicine Practitioners Association
http:// www.ehpa.eu/

Mabey, R. (1996). Flora Britannica. Sinclair-Stevenson.