This MedLibrary.org supplementary page on Hyoscamus niger is provided directly from the open source Wikipedia as a service to our readers. Please see the note below on authorship of this content, as well as the Wikipedia usage guidelines. To search for other content from our encyclopedia supplement, please use the form below:
Related Sponsors
 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2008) |
| Henbane | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Henbane
|
||||||||||||||
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
| Binomial name | ||||||||||||||
| Hyoscyamus niger L. |
Henbane (Hyoscyamus niger[1]), also known as stinking nightshade, is a plant of the family Solanaceae[1] that originated in Eurasia,[1] though it is now globally distributed.
Contents |
Toxicity and historical usage
It was historically used in combination with other plants, such as mandrake, deadly nightshade, and datura as an anaesthetic potion, as well as for its psychoactive properties in "magic brews."[1][2][3] These psychoactive properties include visual hallucinations and a sensation of flight.[4] Its usage was originally in continental Europe, Asia and the Arabic world[5], though it did spread to England sometime during the Middle Ages. The use of Henbane by the ancient Greeks was documented by Pliny. The plant, recorded as Herba Apollinaris, was used to yield oracles by the priestesses of Apollo.[1]
Henbane can be toxic, even fatal, to animals in low doses. Its name dates at least to 1265. The origins of the word are unclear but "hen" probably originally meant death rather than referring to chickens.[6]. Hyoscyamine, scopolamine, and other tropane alkaloids have been found in the foliage and seeds of the plant.[1] Common effects of henbane ingestion in humans include hallucinations,[1] dilated pupils, restlessness, and flushed skin. Less common symptoms such as tachycardia, convulsions, vomiting, hypertension, hyperpyrexia and ataxia have all been noted.
Not all animals are susceptible; the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Cabbage Moth eat henbane.
It was sometimes one of the ingredients in grut, traditionally used in beers as a flavouring, until replaced by hops in the 11th to 16th centuries (for example, the Bavarian Purity Law of 1516 outlawed ingredients other than barley, hops, and water).[7]
In 1910, an American homeopathic doctor living in London, Hawley Harvey Crippen, used hyoscine, an alkaloid extracted from henbane, to poison his wife.[8]
Henbane is thought to have been the "hebenon" poured into the ear of Hamlet's father[2][9] (although other candidates for hebenon exist[10]).
Misidentification
In 2008 celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson recommended Henbane as a "tasty addition to salads" in the August 2008 issue of Healthy and Organic Living magazine. He subsequently said that he had made an error, confusing the herb with Fat Hen. He apologised, and the magazine sent subscribers an urgent message stating that Henbane "is a very toxic plant and should never be eaten."[11]
See also
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g Roberts 1998, p. 31.
- ^ a b Anthony John Carter MB FFARCS (March 2003). "Myths and mandrakes". Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 96: 144–147. PMC:539425.
- ^ A. J. Carter (1996 December 21). "Narcosis and nightshade". British Medical Journal 313 (7072): 1630–1632. PMC:2359130.
- ^ Schultes & Smith 1976, p. 22
- ^ Joseph Perez, Janet Lloyd, The Spanish Inquisition, Yale University Press, 2006, ISBN 0300119828, ISBN 9780300119824, p229 footnote 10]
- ^ Anatoly Liberman, J. Lawrence Mitchell (2008). An Analytic Dictionary of English Etymology: An Introduction. U of Minnesota Press, 108–110. ISBN 9780816652723.
- ^ Dan Rabin, Carl Forget (1998). The Dictionary of Beer and Brewing. Taylor & Francis, xii. ISBN 9781579580780.
- ^ "The Crippen Case – Discovery of Poison", The Times, Wednesday, September 7th, 1910, p3
- ^ "Hebenon". Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913 + 1828).
- ^ Anatoly Liberman, J. Lawrence Mitchell (2008). An Analytic Dictionary of English Etymology: An Introduction. U of Minnesota Press, 110–111. ISBN 9780816652723.
- ^ "TV chef Worrall Thompson recommends deadly weed as salad ingredient", The Guardian (August 4, 2008). Retrieved on 2008-08-04.
References
- Roberts, Margaret F. & Michael Wink (1998), Alkaloids: biochemistry, ecology, and medicinal applications, Springer, 31–32, ISBN 0306454653, <http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0306454653&id=bMCzyrAtrvYC&dq=henbane>. Retrieved on 2006-12-27.
- Schultes, Richard Evans & Elmer W. Smith (1976), A Golden Guide to Hallucinogenic Plants, Golden Press, <http://kosmicjourney.org/encyclopedia/archives/goldenguide.pdf>. Retrieved on 2008-05-26.
- Clinicalmind.com, Henbane, <http://www.clinicalmind.com/supplements/henbane.htm>. Retrieved on 2007-08-18.
|
|||||||||||
External links
- http://www.erowid.org/plants/henbane/henbane.shtml
- Hyoscyamus albus
- Hyoscyamus muticus
- Hyoscyamus niger
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 19 August 2008, at 05:38.
Wikipedia Authorship and Review
Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.
Wikipedia Usage Guidelines
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Hyoscamus niger".
The URL for this specific entry is:
All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.