scopolamine

English

Structure of scopolamine

Etymology

Borrowed from German Skopolamin, from translingual Scopolia (“genus of plants”) +‎ German Amin (“amine”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /skə(ʊ)ˈpɒl.ə.miːn/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /skoʊˈpɑl.əˌmiːn/, /skoʊˈpɑl.əm.ɪn/

Noun

scopolamine (countable and uncountable, plural scopolamines)

1. (pharmacology) A 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).

   Synonym: devil's breath

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

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

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

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

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

     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.

Derived terms

• butylscopolamine
• methylscopolamine

Translations

poisonous alkaloid

• Finnish: skopolamiini (fi)

French

Noun

scopolamine f (plural scopolamines)

1. scopolamine

Further reading

• “scopolamine”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Italian

Noun

scopolamine f

1. plural of scopolamina