A psychiatrist at Tulane University named Robert Heath carried out experiments on prisoners at the Louisiana State Penitentiary using bulbocapnine to induce stupor.[7] This work at Tulane inspired, and was continued parallel to, experiments carried out at the behest of the Central Intelligence Agency. The bulbocapnine work Heath conducted for the government was one component of a large investigation into the potential of psychoactive compounds as aids to interrogation.[8]
The author William S. Burroughs references the drug in his book Naked Lunch (1959), in which the fictional Dr. Benway uses it to induce obedience in torture victims.
In television
The drug's use to treat Mayor Kane's father-in-law and predecessor is a plot point in season 2 of the TV series Boss, e.g., in episodes s2.e8 ("Consequences"; October 5, 2012) and s2.e9 ("Church"; October 12, 2012).
^ CRC World Dictionary of Medicinal and Poisonous Plants: Common Names ... p.1142.
^Adsersen A, Kjølbye A, Dall O, Jäger AK (August 2007). "Acetylcholinesterase and butyrylcholinesterase inhibitory compounds from Corydalis cava Schweigg. & Kort". Journal of Ethnopharmacology. 113 (1): 179–182. doi:10.1016/j.jep.2007.05.006. PMID17574358.
^Zhang YH, Shin JS, Lee SS, Kim SH, Lee MK (August 1997). "Inhibition of tyrosine hydroxylase by bulbocapnine". Planta Medica. 63 (4): 362–363. doi:10.1055/s-2006-957702. PMID9270381. S2CID29474171.
^Loizzo A, De Carolis AS, Longo VG (September 1971). "Studies on the central effects of bulbocapnine". Psychopharmacologia. 22 (3): 234–249. doi:10.1007/BF00401786. PMID5316197. S2CID41534659.
^de Jong HH (1945). Experimental catatonia, a general reaction-form of the central nervous system and its implications for human pathology. The Williams & Wilkins Company. p. 6. OCLC989851203.