Emerging tropane alkaloids: Global development and potential health threats

Abstract Tropane alkaloids (TAs) are a kind of plant secondary metabolites that mainly originate from Solanaceae. They have potent anticholinergic activity, and are well-known anticholinergic drugs, but also have been reported as plant toxins. Many studies have been conducted on TAs, but no scientometric research has been performed. This study aimed to expound the knowledge network and development of the field of TAs and predict the emerging development topics based on bibliometrics. In particular, this research combined VOSviewer and CiteSpace for visualization and covered 1,298 related scientific publications (1953–2022). The research on TAs is rapidly developing, with the participation of 86 countries, 1,129 research institutions, and 4,087 researchers. China, the University of Geneva, and Christen P. are the most productive country, institutions, and researchers, respectively. Currently, the main research topics on TAs include biosynthesis, in vitro synthesis, chemical synthesis, and determination methods. Since 2018, the monitoring of TAs in food related to human health has shown citation burst characteristics, which is considered an emerging development trend in the future. The findings of this study will enable researchers to quickly tap into the knowledge background/structure of TAs from massive data to provide a reference for further research.