Nightshade plant

The members of this family—botanically named the Solanaceae, after the nightshade plant—are all valued for their fruits, with the exception of the potato, where it is the tubers that are eaten. Potatoes do bear small, green tomato-like fruits, but these are poisonous, and should never be eaten. The family includes ... 

The dried and cured leaves of the nightshade plant Nkotiana tabaaim are known as tobacco. Tobacco is mostly smoked, less frequently chewed or taken as dry snuff. Combustion of tobacco generates approx. 4000 chemical compounds in detectable quantities. The xenobiotic burden on the smoker depends on a range of parameters, including tobacco quality, presence of a filter, rate and temperature of combustion, depth of inhalation, and duration of breath holding. 

Itself a deadly poison derived from belladonna or other nightshade plants (see Chapter 19), atropine must be administered with great care. The organophosphate residues can be bound with oximes to release acetylcholinesterase. This is shown below for the reaction of organophosphate-bound acetylcholinesterase enzyme with pralidoxime ... 

Atropine is a racemic compound but the (S)-enantiomer occurs in henbane (tfyoscyamus niget ) and was given a different name, hyoscyamine, before the structures were known. In fact, hyoscyamine racemizes very easilyjust on heating in water or on treatment with weak base. This is probably what happens in the deadly nightshade plant. 

Atropine is an alkaloid isolated from Atropa bellactonna, the deadly nightshade plant. In the Renaissance, women used the juice of the berries of the nightshade to enlarge the pupils of their eyes for cosmetic reasons. Atropine causes an increase in heart rate, relaxes smooth muscles, and interferes with nerve impulses transmitted by acetylcholine In higher doses atropine is poisonous, leading to convulsions, coma, and death. 

Naturally occurring alkaloids—atropine from the poisonous nightshade plant, nicotine from tobacco, and coniine from hemlock (Section 25.6B)... 

The Nightshade plant family (Solanaceae Pers.), containing 90 genera and more than 2000 species distributed in all continents, is particularly abundant in alkaloids (Table 1.7). The plant species belonging to this family grow... 

The berries of the black nightshade plant Solanum nigrum) are a source of the poisonous alkaloid solanine. 

One of several similar substances, collectively known as the belladonna alkaloids, which are extracted from the deadly nightshade plant (Atropa belladonna). Atropine is used mainly to treat disorders of the digestive tract such as excessively rapid movements of the stomach and bowel, overacidity, and ulcers, because it (1) reduces the amounts of digestive secretions, and (2) slows the motions of the digestive organs. Some common side effects are dryness of the mouth and constipation. 

FIGU RE 5.4. Four active chiral compounds isolated from the "deadly nightshade" plant. 

Tables IV, V, and VI show the grass, essential oil yield (by distillation and extraction) preference by cattle and the number of compounds observed. Taste could not be separated from odor in this limited study but we do see a "low preference" for grasses high in volatile essential oils. One can speculate the nightshade plant was not consumed due to toxic compounds present. This also suggests overgrazing of pastures will give the less desirable plants an advantage.

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