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 recognised species in Central to Eastern Europe, (including the Caucasus), and two species in East Asia.The two European species are:
and the two Asiatic species are:
The four species in the equally medicinal genus Anisodus
have in the past been placed in the genus Scopolia, as has the monotypic genus Atropanthe with its single species Atropanthe sinensis Pascher.[1]
Scopolia carniolica - the longest-known species and the one with the westernmost distribution - is a creeping perennial plant, with light green leaves and dull reddish-purple flowers (cream-to-yellow in the attractive and more ornamental form hladnikiana, sometimes cultivated as a decorative plant). Extract of Scopolia (which contains a form of the alkaloid scopolamine) is used in at least one commercial stomach remedy (Inosea, produced by Sato Pharmaceutical). The extract is an anti-spasmodic in low doses and may be used to relax smooth muscle tissue or prevent motion-sickness-induced nausea; in higher doses, it is a poison having hallucinogenic and memory-inhibiting effects.
Other alkaloids found in Scopolia carniolica include cuscohygrine, hyoscyamine, and atroscine.
The coumarin phenylpropanoids umbelliferone and scopoletin have been isolated from the roots of Scopolia japonica.
The existence of the synonym Scopolia atropoides (i.e. "Atropa-like Scopolia") for Scopolia carniolica demonstrates the perceived similarity between Scopolia carniolica and its better-known relative Deadly Nightshade (Atropa belladonna). The most obvious dissimilarity lies in the respective fruits, that of Scopolia being a pyxidium (i.e. a dry, pot-like capsule with an operculum (lid)) while that of Atropa is a juicy, glistening, jet-black berry bearing a superficial resemblance to a cherry - indeed this pyxidium / berry dichotomy constitutes the feature separating the genus Atropa into a subtribe of its own within the Solanaceous tribe Hyoscyameae: all other genera in tribe Hyoscyameae have the same type of dry, pyxidial capsule as Scopolia.Other points of dissimilarity include: