Poisons, synthetic atropine

The first name commemorates its success as a homicidal poison, for it is derived from the senior of three legendary Fates, Atropos, who cuts with shears the web of life spun and woven by her sisters Clothos and Lachesis (there is a minor synthetic atropine-like drug called lachesine). The term belladonna (Italian beautiful woman) refers to the once fashionable female practice of using an extract of the plant to dilate the pupils (incidentally blocking ocular accommodation) as part of the process of making herself attractive. 

Naturally occurring compounds with antimuscarinic effects have been known and used for millennia as medicines, poisons, and cosmetics. Atropine is the prototype of these drugs. Many similar plant alkaloids are known, and hundreds of synthetic antimuscarinic compounds have been prepared. 

Choline nitrite, or pseudo-muscarine, was at one time thought to be identical with natural muscarine, the highly poisonous alkaloid of the mushroom Amanita muscaria (Fly Agaric), and to be the aldehyde corresponding to choline. Both suppositions are wrong. The natural alkaloid is much more toxic than choline nitrite, and its effects are antagonised by atropine, which has little protective effect against the synthetic ester. 

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