ABSTRACT
The family Solanaceae consists of about 85 genera and 2800 species of prickly herbs, shrubs, climbers, and small trees, and is well represented in South America, and known to produce tropane alkaloids derived from ornithine, pyridine, and steroidal alkaloids. An historically interesting example of medicinal Solanaceae used in the West is Mandragora officinarum L., or Mandragora, Mandrake, or Satan’s Apple, the use of which can be recorded from the time of the Kings of Thebes. Hyoscyamine is a parasympatholytic tropane alkaloid which exerts a selective blocking action on muscarinic receptors, hence mydriasis and tachycardia, decreased production of saliva, sweat, gastric juice, constipation, and inability to urinate. An interesting property of capsaicin is that it binds to the vanilloid receptor 1 expressed in small-diameter primary sensory afferent neurons, especially in nociceptive sensory nerves. The plant provides a remedy for dysentery in Taiwan and the Philippines, and is used to mitigate intestinal pain in Taiwan and Malaysia.
