Several of the solanaceous plants used as sources of tropane alkaloids were well known for their poisonous nature and were also used medicinally. They have been included in the pharmacoepias and have been under cultivation in their source countries.

A. belladonna is a tall perennial herb, commonly referred to as Deadly Nightshade; it was introduced into the London pharmacoepia of 1809. Indigenous to Central and Southern Europe, it is cultivated for drug use in Europe and the United States. The tops of the plant are harvested 2–3 times an year and dried to give belladonna herb. Roots form 3- to 4-year-old plants are less commonly used as a source of alkaloids. While leaves were used internally as sedatives and to check secretions, roots were mainly used externally.

D. stramonium is a bushy annual widely distributed in Europe and North America. Also called thornapple it is now cultivated in Europe and South America. Its leaves and flowering tops have been employed in the Middle Ages by dacoits to drug their victims. It is almost exclusively used in the treatment of spasmodic problems of the respiratory organs.

H. niger or henbane, native to Europe, Persia and India, is now cultivated in Britain, the United States and Central Europe. It was often used to relieve spasms of the urinary tract and with strong purgatives to prevent griping.

Commercially important solanaceous species are sources for the extraction of atropine, hyoscyamine and hyoscine which are anti-cholinergics and stimulants.