Editing Atropine (section)

== History ==
[[File:Atropa bella-donna0.jpg|thumb|''Atropa belladonna'']]

The name ''atropine'' was coined in the 19th century, when pure extracts from the belladonna plant ''[[Atropa belladonna]]'' were first made.<ref>''Goodman and Gilman's Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics'', q.v. "Muscarinic receptor antagonists - History", p. 163 of the 2001 edition.</ref> The medicinal use of preparations from [[Solanaceae|plants in the nightshade family]] is much older however. ''Mandragora'' ([[mandrake]]) was described by [[Theophrastus]] in the fourth century B.C. for the treatment of wounds, gout, and sleeplessness, and as a love [[potion]]. By the first century A.D. [[Dioscorides]] recognized wine of mandrake as an [[anaesthetic]] for treatment of pain or sleeplessness, to be given before surgery or cautery.<ref name="holzman" />  The use of nightshade preparations for anesthesia, often in combination with [[opium]], persisted throughout the Roman and Islamic Empires and continued in Europe until superseded in the 19th century by modern anesthetics.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}

Atropine-rich extracts from the Egyptian [[henbane]] plant (another nightshade) were used by [[Cleopatra]] in the last century B.C. to dilate the [[pupils]] of her eyes, in the hope that she would appear more alluring{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}. Likewise, it is widely claimed that in the [[Renaissance]], women used the juice of the berries of the nightshade ''[[Atropa belladonna]]'' to enlarge their pupils for cosmetic reasons. However, primary records of this practice are not known, and the claim may have originated much later by conflating records of actual cosmetic use (for complexion) with the mydriastic properties of atropine. A source from the late 19th century<ref name="harris">{{cite book | title=The Homoeopathic Vade Mecum of Modern Medicine and Surgery: For the Use of Junior Practitioners, Students, Clergymen, Missionaries, Heads of Families, Etc | author=Edward Harris Ruddock | edition=2 | publisher=[[Jarrold and Sons]] |year=1867 | pages=503–508 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sxADAAAAQAAJ&q=belladonna+atropos+date:0-1900&pg=PA502 | author-link=Edward Harris Ruddock }}</ref> claims that the practice was also current in Paris.date=January 2022}}

The pharmacological study of ''belladonna'' extracts was begun by the [[Germany|German]] [[chemist]] [[Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge]] (1795–1867). In 1831, the German pharmacist Heinrich F. G. Mein (1799-1864)<ref>{{cite web | title=Heinrich Friedrich Georg Mein| website=ostfriesischelandschaft.de  | url=http://www.ostfriesischelandschaft.de/fileadmin/php/side.php?news_id=997&part_id=0&navi=11 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130511031004/http://www.ostfriesischelandschaft.de/fileadmin/php/side.php?news_id=997&part_id=0&navi=11 | archive-date=2013-05-11 | url-status=unfit | language=de | access-date=2019-10-20}}</ref> succeeded in preparing a pure crystalline form of the active substance, which was named ''atropine''.<ref>{{cite book| author = von dem Apotheker Mein zu Neustadt-Göders |title=Annalen der Pharmacie|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tT09AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA67|edition=1st|volume=6|year=1833|language=de|pages=67–72|chapter=Ueber die Darstellung des Atropins in weissen Kristallen|trans-chapter=On the preparation of atropine as white crystals|access-date=2016-01-05|archive-date=2016-05-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160515150443/https://books.google.com/books?id=tT09AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA67|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>Atropine was also independently isolated in 1833 by Geiger and Hesse:
*  {{cite book|vauthors=Geiger, Hesse|title=Annalen der Pharmacie|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pz09AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA43|volume=5|year=1833|language=de|pages=43–81|chapter=Darstellung des Atropins|trans-chapter=Preparation of atropine|access-date=2016-01-05|archive-date=2016-05-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160514231012/https://books.google.com/books?id=pz09AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA43|url-status=live}}
*  {{cite book|vauthors=Geiger, Hesse|title=Annalen der Pharmacie|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tT09AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA44|volume=6|year=1833|language=de|pages=44–65|chapter=Fortgesetzte Versuche über Atropin|trans-chapter=Continued experiments on atropine|access-date=2016-01-05|archive-date=2016-06-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160610162825/https://books.google.com/books?id=tT09AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA44|url-status=live}}</ref> The substance was first synthesized by German chemist [[Richard Willstätter]] in 1901.<ref>See:
* {{cite journal | vauthors = Willstätter R | year = 1901 | title = Synthese des Tropidins |trans-title=Synthesis of tropidine | url = http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k907582/f243.image.langEN | journal = Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft zu Berlin | volume = 34 | pages = 129–144 | doi = 10.1002/cber.19010340124 | url-status = live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130301050307/http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark%3A/12148/bpt6k907582/f243.image.langEN | archive-date = 2013-03-01 |language=de}}
* {{cite journal | vauthors = Willstätter R | year = 1901 | title = Umwandlung von Tropidin in Tropin |trans-title=Conversion of tropidine into tropine | url = http://visualiseur.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k90759d | journal = Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft zu Berlin | volume = 34 | issue =  2| pages = 3163–3165 | doi = 10.1002/cber.190103402289 | url-status = live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130126014141/http://visualiseur.bnf.fr/ark%3A/12148/bpt6k90759d | archive-date = 2013-01-26 |language=de }}</ref>