Scopolia Caucasian

Name: Scopolia Caucasian

SCOPOLIA CAUCASUS

 

Perennial herbaceous plant up to 80 cm high with erect, forked-branched stems in the upper part and large obovate, whole-cut leaves, at the base narrowed into a winged stalk. The flowers are solitary, sitting on long drooping legs, the corolla leaves are dark purple on the outside, yellowish inside. Stamens 5. The fruit is a dry two-celled spherical capsule. Very poisonous.

It grows in the lower and middle mountain belts of the Black Sea coast of the Krasnodar Territory, in moist deciduous (beech) forests.

The rhizomes are used for medicinal purposes. They are dug up in the summer, harvesting rhizomes in droves. They are washed, cut into pieces 3-4 cm long, 1-2 cm thick and dried in the open air, being careful. Wash your hands thoroughly after work.

All organs of the plant contain potent poisonous alkaloids hyoscyamine and scopolamine. Chemical processing of hyoscyamine yields the atropine alkaloid.

Scopolamine is used in surgical practice in preparing the patient for anesthesia, in psychiatry as a sedative, as an antiemetic and is part of the Aeron tablets used against motion sickness in transport.

Atropine is used in some eye diseases, as an antispastic agent, as a remedy in the complex treatment of peptic ulcer and in a number of other diseases, in acute gastrointestinal spasms, etc.

It should be warned against the use of this plant in folk medicine due to its poisonous properties.

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