Duboisia myoporoides · PhytoNexus

01 Identity and provenance

Accepted binomial: Duboisia myoporoides
Common names: Corkwood
Family (APG IV): Solanaceae
Part used: Leaf
Verification tier: Tier 2 · Verified Clinical columns reviewed and a source is on record.
Reviewer note (2026 audit): Drugs.com NPP Corkwood Tree monograph | Ullrich SF et al. 2017 (scopolamine supply and cultivation) | VERIFIED 2026 (batch 5) - synthetic analogue, application, interactions, side effects and references populated from retrieved primary/regulatory sources. Interactions labelled CLINICAL vs THEORETICAL. Marketed-formulation column intentionally blank. | ROUTE

02 Constituent chemistry

Chemical class	Marker compound	Synthetic analogue in use
Tropane alkaloids	Hyoscine (Scopolamine) Leaf	Hyoscine (scopolamine) and hyoscyamine ARE the derived drugs; hyoscine butylbromide (Buscopan) is the semi-synthetic quaternary derivative used for abdominal spasm.

The analogue column is what makes the interaction reasoning tractable: where a constituent has a marketed structural counterpart, the counterpart's interaction profile is the starting hypothesis for the plant.

Looking up structures and physicochemical properties from PubChem…

03 Stated application

Reported activity: THE WORLD’S PRINCIPAL COMMERCIAL SOURCE OF SCOPOLAMINE, grown at scale in Australia as D. myoporoides x D. leichhardtii hybrids. Leaf alkaloid yield exceeds 2%. Downstream uses: postoperative nausea and vomiting, motion sickness (transdermal), GI/renal/biliary spasm, mydriasis and cycloplegia for eye examination, pre-anaesthetic medication.
Reported adverse effects: OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURE IS A DISTINCT SYNDROME. Handling dried plant material produces "cork-eye" (mydriasis and cycloplegia from hand-to-eye transfer) and being "corked up" (systemic anticholinergic toxicity) - documented in plantation workers and landscapers. Classic anticholinergic toxidrome: mydriasis, dry mouth, hyperthermia, ataxia, hallucinations, confusion; seizures in severe cases. Children are particularly susceptible. Management: quiet dark environment, benzodiazepine sedation. Also used deliberately as an intoxicant and hallucinogen.

04 Interaction matrix

Source column, verbatim: CLINICAL: additive with all anticholinergics (antihistamines, tricyclics, antipsychotics, antiparkinsonian agents) - a major cause of anticholinergic burden in older patients. Antagonised by cholinesterase inhibitors; physostigmine is the antidote (see entry 173).
Normalised onto 4 canonical drug classes below.

Curated from the reviewed source

Drug class	Severity	Mechanism type	Provenance	Expected effect
Anticholinergics Autonomic	4Contraindicated	PD-additive	curated A	Anticholinergic toxidrome: dry mouth, urinary retention, blurred vision, …	why ▾
Chemistry of this pair. Tropane alkaloids are competitive muscarinic antagonists with central penetration. Class mechanism. Tropane alkaloids (atropine, hyoscine, hyoscyamine) are competitive muscarinic antagonists; added to prescribed anticholinergics, antihistamines or tricyclics the burden summates. Expected Anticholinergic toxidrome: dry mouth, urinary retention, blurred vision, tachycardia, delirium, hyperthermia. Management Calculate total anticholinergic burden. Avoid in older adults, prostatism and narrow-angle glaucoma. Onset rapid Evidence A - human data with a cited source Matched on “anticholinergics” Find evidence for this pair Map this mechanism
Antihistamines Immunology	4Contraindicated	PD-additive	curated A	Drowsiness, impaired coordination, dry mouth, urinary hesitancy, confusio…	why ▾
Chemistry of this pair. Tropane alkaloids are competitive muscarinic antagonists with central penetration. Class mechanism. Sedating antihistamines add to botanical CNS depression, and their antimuscarinic component adds to tropane alkaloid burden. Expected Drowsiness, impaired coordination, dry mouth, urinary hesitancy, confusion in the elderly. Management Prefer non-sedating agents. Warn about driving during the first week of combined use. Onset rapid Evidence A - human data with a cited source Matched on “antihistamines” Find evidence for this pair Map this mechanism
Antipsychotics CNS	4Contraindicated	PD-additive + PK-CYP	curated A	Extrapyramidal symptoms, QT prolongation, excess sedation, or loss of ant…	why ▾
Chemistry of this pair. Tropane alkaloids are competitive muscarinic antagonists with central penetration. Class mechanism. Additive dopaminergic blockade, QT prolongation and sedation, plus CYP1A2, 2D6 and 3A4 modulation of clozapine, risperidone and quetiapine exposure. Expected Extrapyramidal symptoms, QT prolongation, excess sedation, or loss of antipsychotic control with inducers. Management ECG if other QT-prolonging agents are present. Consider clozapine level monitoring where inducers are stopped or started. Onset rapid Evidence A - human data with a cited source Matched on “antipsychotics” Find evidence for this pair Map this mechanism
Cholinesterase inhibitors and cholinergic drugs Autonomic	4Contraindicated	PD-additive	curated A	Cholinergic crisis: bradycardia, bronchorrhoea, bronchospasm, miosis, sei…	why ▾
Class mechanism. Physostigmine-, galantamine- and arecoline-type constituents inhibit acetylcholinesterase or agonise muscarinic receptors, adding to donepezil, rivastigmine, neostigmine or pyridostigmine. Expected Cholinergic crisis: bradycardia, bronchorrhoea, bronchospasm, miosis, seizures, weakness that mimics myasthenic crisis. Management Avoid. In suspected crisis distinguish cholinergic from myasthenic weakness before giving further anticholinesterase. Onset rapid Evidence A - human data with a cited source Matched on “cholinesterase inhibitors” Find evidence for this pair Map this mechanism

Predicted from constituent chemistry

These edges are not clinical findings. Each one is a rule inference: a constituent class in this plant is known to act on a target that the drug class also acts on. They are shown because a blank cell reads as “safe”, and for a Tier 1 entry a blank cell only means “not yet looked at”. Treat them as a literature-search agenda, not as a warning.

Drug class	Severity	Mechanism type	Provenance	Expected effect
Narrow-therapeutic-index CYP3A4 substrates Pharmacokinetic	4Contraindicated	PK-CYP3A4	predicted D	Toxic accumulation or subtherapeutic failure of the co-prescribed drug, s…	why ▾
Chemistry of this pair. Alkaloidal bases have pH-dependent absorption and commonly interact with hepatic CYP isoenzymes and efflux transporters. Class mechanism. Furanocoumarins, bergamottin, piperine, glabridin and berberine inhibit CYP3A4; hyperforin, andrographolide and several diterpenes induce it through PXR. Because CYP3A4 handles roughly half of marketed drugs, the affected list is broad and the direction is product-specific. Expected Toxic accumulation or subtherapeutic failure of the co-prescribed drug, sometimes fatal for antiarrhythmics, immunosuppressants and oncology agents. Management Screen the full regimen for 3A4 substrates. Where the substrate has a narrow index, avoid rather than monitor. Onset unspecified Evidence D - in silico rule prediction only Find evidence for this pair Map this mechanism
Antacids, PPIs and H2 blockers Gastrointestinal	2Moderate	PK-absorption	predicted D	Reduced or erratic absorption of alkaloids; heartburn and reflux from pre…	why ▾
Chemistry of this pair. Alkaloidal bases have pH-dependent absorption and commonly interact with hepatic CYP isoenzymes and efflux transporters. Class mechanism. Gastric pH elevation alters the dissolution and ionisation of alkaloidal and enteric-coated botanical products; menthol- and peppermint-oil products lose their enteric protection at high pH and can be released prematurely. Expected Reduced or erratic absorption of alkaloids; heartburn and reflux from premature release of volatile-oil preparations. Management Separate administration by 2 hours. Avoid non-enteric peppermint oil in reflux disease. Onset unspecified Evidence D - in silico rule prediction only Find evidence for this pair Map this mechanism

05 Hazard register

occupational - "cork-eye" and "corked up" syndromes from handlin

06 Confusable material

No same-genus or shared-common-name entry in the corpus.

07 Mechanism map

Chemistry sorts to the left, pharmacology to the right. Dashed edges are predicted. Drag nodes, scroll to zoom, export at 3× for a figure.

species

chemical class

marker compound

drug class

expected effect

hazard

08 Open literature

Abstract-scoped query built from this binomial, its common names and its marker compounds, run live against Europe PMC, PubMed and OpenAlex, then ranked locally against an evidence hierarchy.

Checking openFDA spontaneous reports…

09 Isomechanistic neighbours

Species whose interaction profile overlaps this one, ranked by shared severity weight rather than by count — a shared contraindication counts for more than a shared minor signal. Practical use: these are the plants you should not stack with this one, because the mechanisms summate.

Species	Family	Shared classes	Jaccard
Atropa belladonna Belladonna	Solanaceae	5	0.83
Hyoscyamus niger Henbane	Solanaceae	5	0.83
Datura stramonium Datura	Solanaceae	5	0.83
Erythroxylum coca Coca	Erythroxylaceae	5	0.83
Areca catechu Areca Nut	Arecaceae	4	0.67
Galanthus nivalis Snowdrop	Amaryllidaceae	4	0.57

10 References and notes

Source column: Pearn J. Med J Aust 1981 ("Corked up": clinical hyoscine poisoning). PubMed 7321976

Pearn J. Med J Aust 1981 ("Corked up": clinical hyoscine poisoning). PubMed 7321976

Pearn J 1981 manual

BibTeX for all 1 records

@article{PearnJ1981,
  title = {Pearn J. Med J Aust 1981 ("Corked up": clinical hyoscine poisoning). PubMed 7321976},
  author = {Pearn J},
  year = {1981},
}

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