~ I~m~III~111 200608197 CSIRO PUBLISHING www.publish.csiro.au/joumals/hras His/orical Records oJAus/ralian Science, 2006, 17, 31-69 Duboisia myoporoides: The Medical Career of a Native Australian Plant Paul Foley Prince ofWales Medical Research Institute, Barker Street, Randwick, NSW 2031, Australia. Email:
[email protected] Alkaloids derived from solanaceous plants were the subject ofintense investigations by European chemists, pharmacologi~ts and clinicians in the second half ofthe nineteenth century. Some surprise was expressed when it was discovered in the 1870s that an Australian bush, Duboisia myoporoides, contained an atropine like alkaloid" 'duboisine'. A complicated and colourful history followed. Duboisine was adopted in Australia, Europe and the United States as an alternative to atropine as an ophthalmologic agent; shortly afterwards, it was also estecmed as a potent sedative in the management ofpsychiatric patients, and as an alternative to other solanaceous alkaloids in the treatment ofparkinsonism. The Second World War led to renewed interest in Duboisia species as sources of scopolamine, required for surgical anaesthesia and to manage sea-sickness, a major problem in the naval part ofthe war. As a consequence ofthe efforts of the CSIR and of Wilfrid Russell Grimwade (1879-1955), this led to the establishment of plantations in Queensland that today still supply the bulk of the world's raw scopolamine. Following the War, however, government support for commercial alkaloid extraction waned, and it was the interest ofthe German firm Boehringer Ingelheim and its investment in the industry that rescued the Duboisia industry in the mid I950s, and that continues to maintain it at a relatively low but stable level today.