This section is from the book "Recent Materia Medica: Notes On Their Origin And Therapeutics", by F. Harwood Lescher. Also available from Amazon: Recent materia medica.
From Hyoscyamus Niger. N. 0. Solanacece.
Alkaloid, in snow-white cubes, which are masses of microscopic needle crystals. Scarcely soluble in cold, more so in hot, and readily in acidulated water.
Therapeutics. Used internally as a hypnotic, in delirium tremens, etc.; and also for coughs. Dose, 1/100 to 1/40 of a grain several times a day; also as a mydriatic (to dilate the eye's pupil), 1 part to 1,000 of water: it acts quicker than atropine. The sulphate is in minute golden crystals. In French Codex, 1884. Of the mydriatic alkaloids, Hyoscyamine is identical with Daturine and Duboisine and is isomeric with Atropine.
From the investigations of Dr. W. Will, it would seem to be that Hyoscyamine alone pre-exists in belladonna, and that Atropine is the result of chemical action; also that the alkaloid obtained from the seed of Hyoscyamus is Hyoscyamine, which is just as easily converted into Atropine.
 
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