ABSTRACT
Anticholinergic agents were introduced into western medicine early in the
19th century from the Indian subcontinent where they had been used in herbal form for many centuries (1). Atropine and related alkaloids with
anticholinergic activity are present in the roots, seeds, and leaves of many
plants such as Datura stramonium or jimsonweed. In the ayurvedic medical tradition, the leaves of Datura were smoked for the relief of respiratory ail-
ments and this was the form and purpose for which it became widely used in
the West. (Indeed ‘‘stramonium cigarettes’’ continued to be used well into the
20th century in both Europe and North America.) Atropine was isolated and
discovered to be the active ingredient in such plants by German chemists in the middle of the 19th century, from which time atropine became the stan-
dard treatment for ‘‘asthma’’ (2). It was the only bronchodilator available
until adrenaline was discovered in the 1920s.
