When the 50-year-old woman was admitted to a hospital in Oxford, England in September 2014, she was exhibiting agitation and confusion. She was flushed and her heart rate was elevated. Because the agitation was severe, she was sedated and spent the night in the intensive care unit, according to Live Science.
Happily, the woman fully recovered and was discharged the following day. Dr. Andrew Chadwick, a physician at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust, treated the woman and wrote a report on her case.
Dr. Chadwick said, “In terms of my advice for people, I would say that there is an assumption that everything natural is, therefore, safe; however, this is not a certainty. “Indeed, many poisons naturally occur, therefore it is important for people to fully understand the substances they are taking.”
According to the case history, the woman suffered from insomnia and had turned to herbs to relieve her suffering. On the night she was admitted, unbeknownst to her husband, she had gone downstairs. Her husband, hearing a commotion in the kitchen, went down to see what was going on with the wife. He found her giggling and acting intoxicated, even though she did not drink.
The two went back upstairs and back to bed. But later in the night, the husband awoke and found his wife was not in bed. He found she had fallen and was unconscious, so he called an ambulance and she was transported to the hospital., according to the report that was published in the British Medical Journal Case Reports November 5, 2015.
The potential dangers of using Atropa Belladonna
The liquid herbal remedy — made from Atropa belladonna — the woman used was purchased legally in the UK, however, the case report points out the hidden dangers of some herbal medicines, and provides some insights into the number of potentially dangerous herbal products sold legally in the UK and the European Union.
Based on the fact that the bottle of liquid belladonna preparation had been unopened before the woman had used it, clinicians were able to determine the woman drank 1.7 ounces (50 milliliters) directly from the bottle. This was the equivalent of 15 mg. of atropine, a naturally occurring chemical found in the plant. The dose she took was “quite large,” said doctors, and it triggered her symptoms.
Belladonna is one of the most toxic plants in the Eastern Hemisphere. All parts of the belladonna plant contain tropane alkaloids, especially dangerous for children who often eat the sweet-tasting berries. The chemicals in belladonna can block the functioning of the body’s nervous system.
Belladonna contains atropine, a chemical that can cause a number of symptoms, from confusion, tachycardia, loss of balance, staggering, headache, rash, flushing, severely dry mouth and throat, slurred speech, urinary retention, constipation, confusion, hallucinations, delirium, and convulsions, to name a few. An overdose can be extremely dangerous.
Dr. Chadwick says 10 to 20 mg. of the chemical can be incapacitating, and he doesn’t know why such a high amount of atropine was in the dose the woman took unless it was supposed to be diluted with water first, or taken in very small amounts, such as a teaspoon. We’ll never know.
