The Origin of Ophthalmic Medication 

The extract of the following plants are used in ophthalmology. Could you name the plants and the 
active ingredients they produce? (Click on the frames below for questions and answers)
 



 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   Its name in Italian means beautiful lady. Women of fashion used to drop juice from the berry into their eyes to dilate their pupils and make them more attractive. It is used widely in ophthalmology for cycloplegic refraction, post-trabeculectomy and severe uveitis.
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   This plant contains tropane alkaloid. It is used as a medicinal, psychoactive and ritual plant featured in the origin myths of many South American tribes. Fresh or dried powdered leaves are held in the mouth (not 
chewed or swallowed) in countries of origin to relieve fatigue and hunger.
   The extract was once used as topical anaesthesia for 
eye procedure. Nowadays, its used in ophthalmology is restricted to confirming Horner's syndrome and in dacryorhinostomy to reduce nasal mucosal blood loss.
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    The bean of this plant contains powerful anticholinesterase effect. It was used in the "ordeal by poison" in the Calabar Province of Nigeria. In this ritual, an accused person drinks a solution of poisonous beans, dying if guilty and apparently surviving if innocent. The success of the method may be based on the probability that innocent people will tend to gulp the entire drink, causing vomiting and expulsion of toxins while the guilty are perhaps more likely  to sip cautiously and thereby ingest more poison. 
     The extract of the bean was used in treating glaucoma and marginal corneal ulcer. Nowadays, its use is confined mainly to systemic treatment of myasthenia gravis.
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   This South American plant is the source of an important alkaloid. The medicinal uses of this plant were introduced to Europe in about 1873 by Symphronio Courtino (1832-87) a Brazilian physician. Adolf Weber (1876) of Darmatadt was the first to recommend its use in the treatment of glaucoma.
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