Reader, it's been a while. I'm doing a ton of writing research right now and this is how I tend to internalize the information I learn. I also wanted to start using this space again, but I wanted a fairly simple article to start things out again. So, here we are.
I've got a book going right now that is heavily based on plants and plant symbolism. One of my characters, actually, is named Belladonna. I have to do a lot of research to make sure I get the elements of the book right, and in my research, I keep running across one story pertaining to the plant belladonna that has intrigued me. So, I read up a bit more on it and here we are.
Let's talk a bit about belladonna and how it was used to enhance a woman's beauty.
Belladonna is a flower most people have heard about. Known as Atropa Belladonna, it's more commonly referred to as just belladonna or deadly nightshade. It is a toxic perennial plant that comes from the family solanaceae (which also contains plants such as eggplant, tomato, and potato). According to Wikipedia, "It is native to Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia. Its distribution extends from Great Britain in the west to western Ukraine and the Iranian province of Gilan in the east. It is also naturalized or introduced to some parts of Canada and the United States."
"The name of atropos belladonna derives from the name of one of the Greek fates, Atropos, whose name means inexorable or inevitable. Atropos is the fate who severs the thread of life." (this website)
So, what exactly, is so bad about belladonna?
While its flowers are beautiful, and the berries that grow from them might look edible, all parts of the plant are deadly (especially the root). The foliage and the berries contain something known as tropane alkaloids, which contains atropine, scopolamine, and hyoscyamine. Now, that's basically a bunch of very fancy lingo that refers to a bunch of substances that can seriously harm your central nervous system.
Belladonna is a visually appealing plant, and this can lead to several additional risk factors:
- You can't really predict how much of these substances any one plant is going to have.
- The berries are sweet and tasty and pretty and kids can be super tempted.
- Even touching the plant can harm you.
The US Forest Service sums up the plant as follows:
In addition to atropine, several other highly toxic and potent psychoactive tropane alkaloids are found in belladonna, including hyoscyamine and scopolamine. All parts of the plant are toxic, but the sweet, purplish-black berries that are attractive to children pose the greatest danger. Symptoms of poisoning include rapid heart beat, dilated pupils, delirium, vomiting, hallucinations, and death due to respiratory failure. Handling the plant can expose a person to absorbing toxins through the skin or cause severe dermatitis. Belladonna is also highly toxic to domestic animals causing paralysis and death.
So, what does this mean for beauty?
To answer that, let's go back to the Renaissance, (though I think it got a resurgence of popularity in the Victorian era).
Anyway, back at some point in history, someone decided that a truly beautiful woman had dilated pupils. A dilated pipe would enhance the beauty of a woman's wide, doe-like eyes and was the most seductive thing, I'm sure. Only, a person can't have dilated pupils all the time and doctors with fancy eye drops didn't exist. The natural state of the pupil is to contract and expand depending on light and a host of other factors which is really pesky when you need them to be blown wide. So, how on earth could these woman have appropriately dilated eyes all the time?
Why, the answer is simple! Just apply some belladonna eye drops!
Belladonna drops act as a muscarinic antagonist, blocking receptors in the muscles of the eye that constrict pupil size (wikipedia). This ends up widening or dilating the pupil. Women would apply drops usually before social situations, and then go out with pupils appropriately wide for doe-like eyes. The effects would last several hours before they'd need to reapply. Only, remember what I said at the start of this post? Ingestion of any part of the plant is toxic. You don't have to eat it to ingest it. Prolonged exposure, even in the eyes, would cause visual disturbances, hallucinations, inability to focus the eyes, increased heart rate, vomiting, and more. Used too long and too frequently, and a woman could go blind, maybe even die.
In fact, this practice was so common, it is believed the painting "Woman With a Mirror" by Titian depicts a woman with dilated pupils, likely from belladonna eye drops.
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| Woman with a Mirror, Titian, c. 1515 |
The practice fell out of favor with time, as these things do. Now people can get their eyes dilated safely in a doctor's office.
Belladonna is actually a very complex plant, and I have read quite a number of articles talking about various ways properties of the plant can be used to heal (by a doctor, for the love of god) as well. I'll likely write an article about that, and how it was used as a poison as well at some other time.
Finally, some interesting facts from the US Forest Service website:
- The oral overdose level for belladonna is only 600 milligrams.
- Only 1 part to 130,000 parts water is sufficient to dilate the pupils.
- The wives of Roman emperors Augustus and Claudius poisoned them with atropine.
- People have been poisoned by eating honey that contained significant amounts of atropine.
- Belladonna (Took) Baggins was Bilbo Baggins' mother in The Hobbit.
Further reading
Bad Decisions in History: Featuring Belladonna
Lazy Eyes Benefit from Beautiful Woman
The Powerful Solanaceae: US Forest Service
16 Disgusting Cosmetic Products Used Throughout History
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