Question

A drug from roots, which cures mental disorders and reduces blood pressure is obtained from
A) Rauwolfia serpentina
B) Atropa belladonna
C) Colchicum luteum
D) Digitalis purpurea

Answer 1

Hint: Mental disorders or which are also called mental illnesses are conditions that affect your thinking, feeling, mood, and also behaviour. They can be occasional or long-lasting which is basically chronic. These can affect your ability to relate to others and function each day. By blood pressure, we mean the force of circulating blood on the walls of the arteries.

Complete answer:
Various mental disorders are depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and other psychoses, dementia, and developmental disorders including autism.

Rauwolfia serpentina is used to treat high blood pressure. Reserpine is in this class of medications which is called rauwolfia alkaloids. It is also used to treat severe agitation in people with mental disorders. It works by slowing the activity of the nervous system, thereby causing the heart rate to slow down and the blood vessels to dilate.

Atropa belladonna is taken by mouth as a sedative, in order to stop bronchial spasms in asthma and whooping cough, and also as a cold and hay fever remedy. It is used for Parkinson's disease, colic, inflammatory bowel disease, motion sickness, and as a painkiller. It is also used in ointments that are applied to the skin for joint pain, pain along the sciatic nerve, and general nerve pain. Hence, it does not cure mental disorders and causes a reduction in blood pressure.

Colchicum luteum is used as a carminative, laxative, and aphrodisiac. They are effective in the treatment of gout, rheumatism, and diseases of the liver and spleen. The corms are applied as a paste to lessen inflammation and pain. Therefore, this plant also does not cure mental disorders and reduce blood pressure.

Digitalis is used to treat congestive heart failure and heart rhythm problems like atrial arrhythmias. Digitalis can increase the blood flow throughout your body and reduce the swelling in your hands and ankles. Hence, they do not play a role in curing mental disorders.

Therefore, the correct answer is option ‘A’.

Note: Antihypertensive actions of reserpine is due to the ability to deplete catecholamines from the peripheral sympathetic nerve endings, thereby inhibiting the uptake of norepinephrine, dopamine serotonin into presynaptic storage vesicles. This results in catecholamines and serotonin lingering in the cytoplasm where they are depleted by intraneuronal monoamine oxidase, which causes the depletion of catecholamine and serotonin stores in both central and peripheral nerve terminals.