''Scopolia carniolica'', the European scopolia or henbane bell, is a poisonous plant belonging to the family

Solanaceae The Solanaceae , or nightshades, are a family of flowering plants that ranges from annual and perennial herbs to vines, lianas, epiphytes, shrubs, and trees, and includes a number of agricultural crops, medicinal plants, spices, weeds, and orn ...

. It has dark violet

flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...

s on long hanging stems. It grows to in height. Its toxicity derives from its high levels of

tropane alkaloid Tropane alkaloids are a class of bicyclic .2.1alkaloids and secondary metabolites that contain a tropane ring in their chemical structure. Tropane alkaloids occur naturally in many members of the plant family Solanaceae. Certain tropane alkal ...

s, particularly

atropine Atropine is a tropane alkaloid and anticholinergic medication used to treat certain types of nerve agent and pesticide poisonings as well as some types of slow heart rate, and to decrease saliva production during surgery. It is typically given i ...

. The concentration of

is highest in the

root In vascular plants, the roots are the organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often below the sur ...

s. ''Scopolia carniolica'' grows on wet soils in

beech Beech (''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia, and North America. Recent classifications recognize 10 to 13 species in two distinct subgenera, ''Engleriana'' and ''Fagus''. The ''Engle ...

forests of

Southeastern Europe Southeast Europe or Southeastern Europe (SEE) is a geographical subregion of Europe, consisting primarily of the Balkans. Sovereign states and territories that are included in the region are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia (al ...

from lowlands to the mountainous zones, being native to a region stretching from the eastern

Alps The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Sw ...

to the eastern

Carpathians The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Ural Mountains, Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains at . The ...

and also naturalised farther east in southwestern

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

.Starý, František, Poisonous Plants (Hamlyn colour guides) – pub. Paul Hamlyn April, 1984, translated from the Czech by Olga Kuthanová. The rare form ''Scopolia carniolica'' f. ''hladnikiana'' (which differs from the common form in having a corolla that is greenish yellow, both inside and out) is native to

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

. ''Scopolia carniolica'' was first described by the botanist

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

and named in honour of the physician

Giovanni Antonio Scopoli Giovanni Antonio Scopoli (sometimes Latinisation of names, Latinized as Johannes Antonius Scopolius) (3 June 1723 – 8 May 1788) was an Italian physician and natural history, naturalist. His biographer Otto Guglia named him the "first anational ...

as ''Hyoscyamus scopolia''.

Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin Nikolaus Joseph Freiherr von Jacquin (16 February 172726 October 1817) was a scientist who studied medicine, chemistry and botany. Biography Born in Leiden in the Netherlands, he studied medicine at Leiden University, then moved first to P ...

classified it to the genus ''

Scopolia ''Scopolia'' is a genus of four species of flowering plants in the family Solanaceae, native to Europe and Asia. The genus is named after Giovanni Scopoli (1723–88), a Tyrolean naturalist. The genus has a disjunct distribution, with two reco ...

''. The specific name ''carniolica'' signifies 'of

Carniola Carniola ( sl, Kranjska; , german: Krain; it, Carniola; hu, Krajna) is a historical region that comprised parts of present-day Slovenia. Although as a whole it does not exist anymore, Slovenes living within the former borders of the region sti ...

', a

historical region Historical regions (or historical areas) are geographical regions which at some point in time had a cultural, ethnic An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that ...

that comprised parts of modern-day Slovenia (see also

Duchy of Carniola The Duchy of Carniola ( sl, Vojvodina Kranjska, german: Herzogtum Krain, hu, Krajna) was an imperial estate of the Holy Roman Empire, established under House of Habsburg, Habsburg rule on the territory of the former East Frankish March of Carn ...

and

March of Carniola The March (or Margraviate) of Carniola ( sl, Kranjska krajina; german: Mark Krain) was a southeastern Imperial State, state of the Holy Roman Empire in the High Middle Ages, the predecessor of the Duchy of Carniola. It corresponded roughly to the c ...

). ''Scopolia carniolica'' is the symbol of the Slovene Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine. The plant is a source of

scopolamine Scopolamine, also known as hyoscine, or Devil's Breath, is a natural or synthetically produced tropane alkaloid and anticholinergic drug that is formally used as a medication for treating motion sickness and postoperative nausea and vomiting ...

, which was used as an

anesthetic An anesthetic (American English) or anaesthetic (British English; see spelling differences) is a drug used to induce anesthesia ⁠— ⁠in other words, to result in a temporary loss of sensation or awareness. They may be divided into two ...

in the past. It is native to Austria, Baltic States, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Italy, North Caucasus, Poland, Romania, Transcaucasus, Ukraine, Yugoslavia.

Use in folk medicine and criminal poisoning

The plant was used in the late Middle Ages as a narcotic agent and an ingredient in 'love potions' – a practice frequently resulting in fatal cases of poisoning. Furthermore, in its native Carpathians, ''Scopolia carniolica'' was also used with criminal intent, either to stupefy victims in order to rob them, or to kill them outright. It has also been used throughout Europe as a medicinal plant.

Gallery

File:IMG 5039 Scopolia carniolica Jacq.jpg, ''Scopolia carniolica'' Jacq. Young shoot sprouting: scale leaves pigmented purple: adult leaves somewhat dentate. File:Scopolia carniolica Finland 2016-04-30.jpg, Fresh young foliage and abundant flowers of a mature specimen in Spring. Cultivated plant,

arboretum An arboretum (plural: arboreta) in a general sense is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, man ...

in southern

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. File:Scopolia carniolica 2016-04-19 8137.JPG, Flower and leaves viewed from beneath, UMCS Botanical Garden in

Lublin Lublin is the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the center of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin is the largest Polish city east of t ...

Poland File:IMG 5025 Scopolia carniolica Jacq.jpg, ''Scopolia carniolica'' Jacq. Young flowering shoot. Cultivated plant. File:IMG 5034 Scopolia carniolica Jacq.jpg, ''Scopolia carniolica'' Jacq. Single flower, showing long, slender pedicel and cup-like calyx. File:IMG 5018 Scopolia carniolica Jacq.jpg, ''Scopolia carniolica'' Jacq. Flowers, enlarged, showing cream interior with green reticulation and unripe anthers. File:Scopolia carniolica pyxidium dehiscence.jpg, ''Scopolia carniolica'' Jacq. fruiting calyx dissected to reveal pyxidium within, dehiscing by operculum to reveal ripe, pitted brown seeds within.

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1786332 Hyoscyameae Flora of Europe Flora of Slovenia Deliriants