An alkaloid found in the Calabar bean (the seed of Physostigma venenosum), and extracted as a white, tasteless, substance, amorphous or crystalline; -- formerly called eserine, with which it was regarded as identical.
A reversible anticholinesterase permitting an accumulation of acetylcholine (cholinergic). It readily crosses the blood-brain barrier. It improves the tone and action of skeletal muscles, increases intestinal peristalsis, acts as a miotic in the eye, and is used in treatment of BZ.
used in treatment of Alzheimer's disease and glaucoma
is a drug that is a classical potent acetylcholinesterase inhibitor but which causes unpleasant side effects that have prevented its development as a treatment for Alzheimer's Disease.
Physostigmine (also known as eserine) is a parasympathomimetic, specifically, a reversible cholinesterase inhibitor obtained from the Calabar bean. By interfering with the metabolism of acetylcholine, physostigmine indirectly stimulates both nicotinic and muscarinic receptors. The chemical was synthesized for the first time in 1935 by the chemists Percy Lavon Julian and Josef Pikl.