Solanaceae

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Solanaceae

The Solanaceae is a family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is a taxonomic rank. Exact details of formal nomenclature depend on the Nomenclature Codes which applies....
of flowering plant

Flowering plant

The flowering plants or angiosperms are the most widespread group of Embryophytes. The flowering plants and the gymnosperms are the only extant groups of Spermatophyte....
s, that contains a number of important agricultural plants as well as many toxic plants. The name of the family comes from the Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
Solanum
Solanum

Solanum, the nightshades, horsenettles and relatives, is a large and diverse genus of annual plant and perennial plants. They grow as forbs, vines, sub-shrubs, shrubs, and small trees, and often have attractive fruit and flowers....
"the nightshade plant", but the further etymology of that word is unclear. Most likely, the name comes from the perceived resemblance that some of the flowers bear to the sun and its rays, and in fact a species of Solanum (Solanum nigrum
Solanum nigrum

Solanum nigrum is a species in the Solanum genus, native to Eurasia and introduced in the Americas and Australasia.Description...
) is known as the sunberry.

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Encyclopedia

The Solanaceae is a family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is a taxonomic rank. Exact details of formal nomenclature depend on the Nomenclature Codes which applies....
of flowering plant

Flowering plant

Latin

Verb

In syntax, a verb is a word that usually denotes an action , an occurrence , or a state of being . Depending on the language, a verb may vary in form according to many factors, possibly including its grammatical tense, grammatical aspect, grammatical mood and grammatical voice....
solari, meaning "to soothe". This presumably refers to alleged soothing pharmacological

Pharmacology

Pharmacology is the study of drug action. More specifically it is the study of the interactions that occur between a living organism and exogenous chemicals that alter normal biochemical function....
properties of some of the psychoactive species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring....
of the family.

The family is also informally known as the nightshade family or potato
Potato

The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial plant Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family. The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well....
family. The family includes Datura
Datura

Datura is a genus of nine species of Vespertine flowering plants belonging to the family Solanaceae. Their exact natural distribution is uncertain, due to extensive cultivation and naturalisation throughout the temperate and tropical regions of the globe, but is most likely restricted to the Americas, from the United States south throug...
(Jimson weed), mandrake

Mandrake (plant)

Mandrake is the common name for members of the plant genus Mandragora belonging to the nightshades family . Because mandrake contains deliriant hallucinogenic tropane alkaloids such as hyoscyamine and the roots sometimes contain bifurcations causing them to resemble human figures, their roots have long been used in magic rituals, t...
, deadly nightshade

Deadly nightshade

Atropa belladonna or Atropa bella-donna, commonly known as belladonna or deadly nightshade, is a perennial plant herbaceous plant in the family Solanaceae, native to Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia....
(belladonna

Atropa

Atropa is a genus of plants in the nightshade family. Its best-known member is the deadly nightshade, Atropa belladonna. Its pharmacologically active ingredient is atropine....
), capsicum

Capsicum

Capsicum is a genus of plants from the nightshade family native to the Americas, where it was cultivated for thousands of years by the people of the tropical Americas, and is now cultivated worldwide....
(paprika

Paprika

Paprika is a spice made from the grinding of many dried sweet red or green bell peppers . In many European countries, the word paprika also refers to bell peppers themselves....
, chili pepper

Chili pepper

Chili pepper is the fruit of the plants from the genus Capsicum, members of the Solanaceae, Solanaceae. Botany considers the plant a berry bush....
), potato

Potato

The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial plant Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family. The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well....
, tobacco

Tobacco

Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the fresh leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as an organic pesticide, and in the form of nicotine tartrate it is used in some medicines....
, tomato

Tomato

The Tomato is an herbaceous, usually sprawling plant in the Solanaceae or nightshade family, as are its close cousins Nicotiana, potatoes, aubergine , chilli peppers, and the poisonous Atropa belladonna....
, eggplant and petunia

Petunia

Petunia is a trumpet shaped, widely-cultivated genus of flowering plants of South American origin, in the family Solanaceae. The popular flower got its name from French, which took the word petun 'tobacco' from a Tupi-Guarani language....
.

The Solanaceae family is characteristically ethnobotanical

Ethnobotany

Ethnobotany is the Scientific method of the relationships that exist between person and plants.Ethnobotanists aim to reliably document, describe and explain complex relationships between cultures and plants: focusing, primarily, on how plants are used, managed and perceived across human societies ...
, that is, extensively utilized by human

Human

A human being, also human or man, is a member of a species of bipedalism primates in the family Hominidae . Mitochondrial DNA evidence indicates that modern humans originated in east Africa about 200,000 years ago....
s. It is an important source of food

Food

Food is any substance, usually composed of carbohydrates, fats, proteins and water, that can be Eating or Drinking by an animal or human for nutrition or pleasure....
, spice

Spice

A spice is a dried seed, fruit, root, bark, leaf, or vegetable used in nutritionally insignificant quantities as a food additive for the purpose of flavor, color, or as a preservative that kills harmful bacteria or prevents their growth....
and medicine

Medicine

Medicine is the art and science of healing. It encompasses a range of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
. However, Solanaceae species are often rich in alkaloid

Alkaloid

Alkaloids are naturally occurring chemical compounds containing base nitrogen atoms. The name derives from the word alkaline and was used to describe any nitrogen-containing base....
s whose toxicity

Toxicity

Toxicity is the degree to which a substance is able to damage an exposed organism. Toxicity can refer to the effect on a whole organism, such as an animal, bacterium, or plant, as well as the effect on a substructure of the organism, such as a cell or an organ , such as the liver ....
to humans and animals ranges from mildly irritating to fatal in small quantities.

Description

Flowers are typically conical or funnel in shape, with five petals, usually fused. The leaves are alternate, often with a hairy or clammy surface. Solanaceous plants produce a fruit

Fruit

The term fruit has different meanings dependent on context, and the term is not synonymous in food preparation and biology. In botany, which is the scientific study of plants, fruits are the ripened Ovary of flowering plants....
that is either a berry

Berry

In everyday English, a berry is a broad term for any small edible fruit. Most berries are juicy, round or semi-oblong, brightly coloured, sweet or sour, and don't have a stone or pit....
, as in the case of the tomato

Tomato

Wolfberry

Wolfberry - commercially called goji berry - is the common name for the fruit of two very closely related species: Lycium barbarum and L....
, or is dehiscent capsule

Capsule (fruit)

In botany a capsule is a type of simple, dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. A capsule is a dehiscent structure composed of two or more carpels, that, at maturity, split apart to release the seeds within....
(breaks open upon drying, or dehiscing, releasing the seeds) as in the case of Datura. The seeds are usually round and flat, being 2-4 millimeters in diameter. The stamens are usually present in multiples of four (most commonly four or eight). The ovaries

Ovary (plants)

In the flowering plants, an ovary is a part of the female reproductive organ of the flower or gynoecium. Specifically, it is the part of the carpel which holds the ovule and is located above or below or at the point of connection with the base of the petals and sepals....
are superior. The hypogynus gynoecium is a syncarp located obliquely in relation to the median.

Alkaloids

The Solanaceae are known for possessing a diverse range of alkaloids. As far as humans are concerned, these alkaloids can be desirable, toxic, or both, though they presumably evolved because they reduce the tendency of animals to eat the plants.

One of the most important groups of these compounds is called the tropane

Tropane

Tropane is a nitrogenous bicyclic organic compound. It is mainly known for a group of alkaloids derived from it , which include, among others, atropine and cocaine....
alkaloids. The term "tropane" comes from a genus

Genus

A genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The taxonomic ranks are domain , kingdom , phylum, class , order , family , genus, and species....
in which they are found, Atropa
Atropa

Atropa is a genus of plants in the nightshade family. Its best-known member is the deadly nightshade, Atropa belladonna. Its pharmacologically active ingredient is atropine....
(the belladonna genus). The belladonna genus is so named after the Greek

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the Ancient Greece concerning their List of Greek mythological figures#Immortals and Greek hero cult, Cosmology#Metaphysical cosmology, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices....
Fate

Moirae

The Moirae or Moerae , in Greek mythology, were the white-robed personifications of destiny . The Greek word moira literally means a part or portion, and by extension one's portion in life or destiny....
, Atropos

Atropos

In Greek mythology, Atropos was one of the three Moirae, Goddesses of wikt:fate and destiny. Her Roman equivalent was Morta . Atropos was the oldest of the Three Fates, and was known as the "inflexible" or "inevitable." It was Atropos who chose the mechanism of death and ended the life of each mortal by cutting their thread with her "abhor...
, who cut the thread of life. This nomenclature signifies the toxicity and lethality that has long been known to be characteristic of these compounds.

Tropane alkaloids are also found in the Datura
Datura

Datura is a genus of nine species of Vespertine flowering plants belonging to the family Solanaceae. Their exact natural distribution is uncertain, due to extensive cultivation and naturalisation throughout the temperate and tropical regions of the globe, but is most likely restricted to the Americas, from the United States south throug...
, Mandragora
Mandrágora

For other uses see Mandragora .La Mandr?gora was a Chilean Surrealist group "officially founded" on 12 July, 1938 by Braulio Arenas , Te?filo Cid and Enrique G?mez Correa ....
, and Brugmansia
Brugmansia

Brugmansia is a genus of six species of flowering plants in the family Solanaceae, native to subtropical regions of South America, along the Andes from Colombia to northern Chile, and also in southeastern Brazil....
genera, as well as many others in the Solanaceae family. Chemically, the molecules of these compounds have a characteristic bicyclic structure and include atropine

Atropine

Atropine is a tropane alkaloid extracted from deadly nightshade , jimsonweed , Mandrake and other plants of the family Solanaceae. It is a secondary metabolite of these plants and serves as a hard drug with a wide variety of effects....
, scopolamine

Scopolamine

Scopolamine, known by the names levo-duboisine and hyoscine, is a tropane alkaloid Medication with muscarinic antagonist effects. It is obtained from plants of the family Solanaceae , such as henbane, jimson weed and Angel's Trumpets , and corkwood ....
, and hyoscyamine

Hyoscyamine

Hyoscyamine, pronounced hi-oh-SYE-uh-meen, is a chemical compound, a tropane alkaloid. It is the levorotary isomer to atropine. It is a secondary metabolite found in certain plants of the Solanaceae family, including henbane, mandrake , jimsonweed , and deadly nightshade ....
. Pharmacologically, they are the most powerful known anticholinergics in existence, meaning they inhibit the neurological signals transmitted by the endogenous neurotransmitter

Neurotransmitter

Neurotransmitters are chemistry which relay, amplify and modulate signals between a neuron and another cell . Neurotransmitters are packaged into vesicles that cluster beneath the membrane on the presynaptic side of a synapse, and are released into the synaptic cleft, where they bind to receptors in the membrane on the postsynaptic side of...
, acetylcholine

Acetylcholine

The chemical compound acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter in both the peripheral nervous system and central nervous system in many organisms including homo sapiens....
. Symptoms of overdose may include mouth dryness

Xerostomia

Xerostomia is the medical term for a dry mouth due to a lack of saliva. Xerostomia is sometimes colloquially called pasties, cottonmouth, or doughmouth....
, dilated pupils

Mydriasis

Mydriasis is an excessive dilation of the pupil due to disease, Physical trauma, or the use of drugs. Normally, the pupil dilates in the dark and constriction in the light to improve vividity at night and to protect the retina from sunlight damage during the day....
, ataxia

Ataxia

Ataxia is a neurology sign and symptom consisting of gross lack of coordination of muscle movements. Ataxia is a non-specific clinical manifestation implying dysfunction of parts of the nervous system that coordinate movement, such as the cerebellum....
, urinary retention

Urinary retention

Urinary retention also known as ischuria is a lack of ability to urinate. It is a common complication of Benign prostatic hyperplasia , although anticholinergics may also play a role, and requires a catheter or Prostatic stent....
, hallucination

Hallucination

A hallucination, in the broadest sense, is a perception in the absence of a stimulus . In a stricter sense, hallucinations are defined as perceptions in a conscious and awake state in the absence of external stimuli which have qualities of real perception, in that they are vivid, substantial, and located in external objective space....
s, convulsions

Seizure

An epileptic seizure is a transient symptom of abnormal, excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain. It can manifest as an alteration in mental state, tonic or clonic movements, convulsions, and various other psychic symptoms ....
, coma

Coma

In medicine, a coma is a profound state of unconsciousness. A comatose person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to pain or light, does not have sleep-wake cycles, and does not take voluntary actions....
, and death

Death

Death is the permanent termination of the biological functions that define a life organism. It refers to both a particular event and to the condition that results thereby....
.

Despite the extreme toxicity of the tropanes, they are important drugs when administered in appropriate (and extremely small) dosages. They can reverse cholinergic

Cholinergic

A receptor is cholinergic if it uses acetylcholine as its neurotransmitter.Cholinergic means related to the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, and is typically used in a neurological perspective....
poisoning, which can be caused by overexposure to pesticides and chemical warfare

Chemical warfare

Chemical warfare involves using the poison of chemical substances as weapons to kill, injure, or incapacitate an Enemy .This type of warfare is distinct from the use of conventional weapons or nuclear weapons because the destructive effects of chemical weapons are not primarily due to their explosion force....
agents such as sarin

Sarin

Sarin, also known by its NATO designation of GB, is an extremely toxic substance whose sole application is as a nerve agent. As a chemical weapons, it is classified as a weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations in UN Resolution 687....
and VX

VX (nerve agent)

VX is an extremely toxic substance whose only application is in chemical warfare as a nerve agent. As a chemical weapon, it is classified as a weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations in UN Resolution 687....
. More commonly, they can halt many types of allergic reactions. Scopolamine

Scopolamine

Ophthalmology

Ophthalmology is the branch of medicine which deals with the Eye diseases and Eye surgery of the visual pathways, including the eye, brain, and areas surrounding the eye, such as the lacrimal system and eyelids....
agent, dilates the pupils and thus facilitates examination of the interior of the eye. They can also be used as antiemetics in people prone to motion sickness

Motion sickness

Motion sickness or kinetosis is a condition in which a disagreement exists between visually perceived movement and the vestibular system's sense of movement....
or receiving chemotherapy

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy, in its most general sense, refers to treatment of disease by chemicals that kill cells, specifically those of micro-organisms or cancer....
. Atropine has a stimulant

Stimulant

Stimulant drugs are drugs that temporarily increase alertness and awareness. They usually have increased side-effects with increased effectiveness, and the more powerful variants are therefore often prescription medicines or illegal drugs....
effect on the central nervous system

Central nervous system

The central nervous system is the part of the nervous system that functions to coordinate the activity of all parts of the bodies of multicellular organisms....
and heart, whereas scopolamine has a sedative

Sedative

A sedative is a substance that induces sedation by reducing irritability or excitement.At higher doses it may result in slurred speech, staggering gait , poor judgment, and slow, uncertain reflexes....
effect.

A famous alkaloid from the Solanaceae family is nicotine

Nicotine

Nicotine is an alkaloid found in the nightshade family of plants which constitutes approximately 0.6?3.0% of dry weight of tobacco, with biosynthesis taking place in the roots, and accumulating in the leaves....
. Like the tropanes, its pharmacology acts on cholinergic neurons, but with the opposite effect (it is an agonist

Agonist

An agonist is a term used to describe a type of Ligand or drug that binds and alters the activity of a Receptor . The ability to alter the activity of a receptor, also known as the agonist's efficacy is a property that distinguishes it from receptor antagonist, a type of receptor ligand which also binds a receptor but which does not alter t...
as opposed to an antagonist

Receptor antagonist

A receptor antagonist is a type of receptor ligand or drug that does not provoke a biological response itself upon binding to a Receptor , but blocks or dampens agonist-mediated responses....
). It has a higher specificity for nicotinic acetylcholine receptors than other ACh proteins. Its effects are well known. Nicotine

Nicotine

Nicotine is an alkaloid found in the nightshade family of plants which constitutes approximately 0.6?3.0% of dry weight of tobacco, with biosynthesis taking place in the roots, and accumulating in the leaves....
occurs naturally in the Nicotiana
Nicotiana

Nicotiana is a genus of herbs and shrubs of the nightshade family indigenous to North America and South America, Australia, south west Africa and the Oceania....
or Tobacco

Tobacco

Glycoalkaloid

Glycoalkaloids are a family of poisons commonly found in the plant species Solanum dulcamara . There are several glycoalkaloids that are potentially toxic....
s, for example solanine

Solanine

Solanine is a glycoalkaloid poison found in species of the nightshade family, such as potatoes. It can occur naturally in any part of the plant, including the leaves, fruit, and tubers....
which has occasionally been responsible for poisonings, in people who ate berries from species such as Solanum nigrum
Solanum nigrum

Solanum nigrum is a species in the Solanum genus, native to Eurasia and introduced in the Americas and Australasia.Description...
or Solanum dulcamara
Solanum dulcamara

Solanum dulcamara, also known as bittersweet, bittersweet nightshade, bitter nightshade, blue bindweed, climbing nightshade, fellenwort, felonwood, poisonberry, poisonflower, scarlet berry, snakeberry, trailing bittersweet, trailing nightshade, violet bloom...
, or spoiled potato

Potato

The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial plant Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family. The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well....
es.

Nutritional importance

The most important species of this family for the global diet is the potato

Potato

The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial plant Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family. The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well....
or Solanum tuberosum, whose carbohydrate

Carbohydrate

Carbohydrates or saccharides are the most abundant of the four major classes of biomolecules. They fill numerous roles in living things, such as the storage and transport of energy and structural components ....
-rich tuber

Tuber

Tubers are various types of modified plant structures that are enlarged to store nutrients. They are used by plants to overwinter and regrow the next year and as a means of asexual reproduction....
s have been a staple food

Staple food

A staple food is a food that can be stored for use throughout the year and forms the basis of a traditional diet. Staple foods vary from place to place, but are typically inexpensive starchy foods of vegetable origin that are high in food energy and carbohydrate....
in many times and places, and which is one of the most grown crops today. In many genera, the fruits are the desirable item, for example, tomato

Tomato

Tomatillo

The tomatillo is a plant of the Solanaceae family, related to tomatoes, bearing small, spherical and green or green-purple fruit of the same name....
s, eggplants, uchuva, and peppers

Capsicum

Allergy

Allergy is a Disorder of the immune system often also referred to as atopy. Allergic reactions occur to Natural environmental substances known as allergens; these reactions are Acquired disorder, predictable and rapid....
-like symptoms in response to nightshade plants.

External links

- A worldwide taxonomic monograph of all species in the genus Solanum.
in http://delta-intkey.com
in USDA Plants Database.
Flowers in Israel

Solanaceae

Description

Alkaloids

Nutritional importance

External links

See also

Additional reading