scopolamine

plural scopolamines

1. countableuncountablemedicineA poisonous alkaloid C₁₇H₂₁NO₄ similar to atropine that is found in various solanaceous plants and is used for its anticholinergic effects (such as preventing nausea in motion sickness and inducing mydriasis).

   I had been shot full of dope to keep me quiet. Perhaps scopolamine too, to make me talk.

   1940, Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, Penguin, published 2010, page 176

   2 more examples

   The Incas had herbs for headaches and other pains; and they used scopolamine, a poison from the datura plant, as an anaesthetic.

   1997, Roy Porter, The Greatest Benefit to Mankind, Folio Society, published 2016, page 159

   Scopolamine is a nonselective muscarinic acetylcholine receptor (mAChR) antagonist with potentially selective inhibitory actions on muscarinic subtypes 1 and 2 (M1 and M2). Unlike ketamine, esketamine, and nitrous oxide, scopolamine directly affects the cholinergic pathway but does not directly modulate the glutamatergic pathway.

   2019, Madhukar H. Trivedi, editor, Depression, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 228

   Synonyms: devil's breath