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Hyoscyamus
''Hyoscyamus'' — known as the henbanes — is a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family, Solanaceae. It comprises 31 species, all of which are toxic. It, along with other genera in the same family, is a source of the drug hyoscyamine (daturine). Cruciferous type of stomata are present in Hyoscyamus. ''Hyoscyamus'' means "hog-bean" in botanical Latin and was a name derogatorily applied to the plant by Dioscorides. The poisonous, narcotic henbanes were associated with witchcraft since earliest times. The Assyrians recommended hanging them on one's door to ward off sorcery. Witches found them valuable especially due to their trance-inducing capabilities, and they were used in flying ointment rituals. They have been used to lessen pain, neuralgia and diminish convulsions. Dioscorides recommended them largely for external pain killing use. The leaves are made into a kind of cigarette to relieve asthma and other respiratory ailments.Flowers of Greece and the Aegean by Ant ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hyoscyamus Niger
Henbane (''Hyoscyamus niger'', also black henbane and stinking nightshade) is a poisonous plant belonging to tribe Hyoscyameae of the nightshade family ''Solanaceae''. Henbane is native to temperate Europe and Siberia, and naturalised in Great Britain and Ireland. Historical use The name ''henbane'' dates from AD 1265; "bane" meant 'thing that causes death'. Other etymologies of ''henbane'' derive from the Indo-European stem ''bhelena'' meaning "crazy plant" and with the Proto-Germanic element ''bil'' meaning "vision", "hallucination", "magical power", and "miraculous ability". Historically, henbane was used in combination with other plants, such as the mandrake, the deadly nightshade, and datura, as an anaesthetic potion, and for its psychoactive properties in "magic brews". These psychoactive properties include visual hallucinations and a sensation of flight.Schultes & Smith 1976, p. 22 It was originally used in continental Europe, Asia, and the Arab world, though it did sp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hyoscyamus Albus
''Hyoscyamus albus'', the white henbane or yellow henbane, is a plant in the family of Solanaceae. It is native to Southern Europe, North Africa, West Asia and Macaronesia. Description Erect plant 20–80 cm tall, sticky and covered with glandular-woolly hairs. All leaves stalked, ovate, bluntly sinuately toothed, Flowers 3 cm across, only the lowest ones stalked, in dense, leafy spike-like inflorescences, the flowers mostly facing the same way. Corolla tubular to bell-shaped, almost regular, with 5 lobes, glandular hairy outside, usually yellowish white, the throat green or purple. Anthers not or only slightly protruding. Calyx densely glandular-woolly 2–2.5 cm long at fruiting-time. Slightly poisonous plant. Flowers March to September. Waste ground, road sides, on walls, often near and in settlements, villages, towns, ancient sites. Mediterranean region, Canary Islands, eastwards to S. Russia and Iraq. Medicinal use In the mythological tradition the discovery ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Solanaceae
Solanaceae (), commonly known as the nightshades, is a family of flowering plants in the order Solanales. It contains approximately 2,700 species, several of which are used as agricultural crops, medicinal plants, and ornamental plants. Many members of the family have high alkaloid contents, making some highly toxic, but many—such as tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, and peppers—are commonly used in food. Originating in South America, Solanaceae now inhabits every continent on Earth except Antarctica. After the K—Pg extinction event they rapidly diversified and have adapted to live in deserts, tundras, rainforests, plains, and highlands, and taken on wide range of forms including trees, vines, shrubs, and epiphytes. Nearly 80% of all nightshades are included in the subfamily Solanoideae, most of which are members of the type genus ''Solanum''. Most taxonomists recognize six other subfamilies: Cestroideae, Goetzeoideae, Nicotianoideae, Petunioideae, Schizanthoideae, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flying Ointment
Flying ointment is a hallucinogenic ointment said to have been used by witches in the practice of European witchcraft from at least as far back as the Early Modern period, when detailed recipes for such preparations were first recorded and when their usage spread to colonial North America. Name The ointment is known by a wide variety of names, including witches' flying ointment, green ointment, magic salve, or lycanthropic ointment. In German it was () or (). Latin names included ), , () or (). Composition Poisonous ingredients listed in works on ethnobotany include: belladonna, henbane bell, jimson weed, black henbane, mandrake, hemlock, and/or wolfsbane, most of which contain atropine, hyoscyamine, and/or scopolamine. Scopolamine can cause psychotropic effects when absorbed transdermally. These tropane alkaloids are classified as deliriants in regards to their psychoactive effects. Francis Bacon (attributed as "Lord Verulam") listed the ingredients of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hyoscyamine
Hyoscyamine (also known as daturine or duboisine) is a naturally occurring tropane alkaloid and plant toxin. It is a secondary metabolite found in certain plants of the family Solanaceae, including Hyoscyamus niger, henbane, Mandragora officinarum, mandrake, Brugmansia, angel's trumpets, Datura stramonium, jimsonweed, Latua pubiflora, the sorcerers' tree, and Atropa belladonna (deadly nightshade). It is the levorotary isomer of atropine (third of the three major nightshade alkaloids) and thus sometimes known as levo-atropine. In 2021, it was the 272nd most commonly prescribed medication in the United States, with more than 900,000 prescriptions. Medical uses Hyoscyamine is used to provide symptomatic relief of spasms caused by various lower abdominal and bladder disorders including peptic ulcers, irritable bowel syndrome, diverticulitis, pancreatitis, colic, and interstitial cystitis. It has also been used to relieve some heart problems, control some of the symptoms of Parkinso ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dioscorides
Pedanius Dioscorides (, ; 40–90 AD), "the father of pharmacognosy", was a Greek physician, pharmacologist, botanist, and author of (in the original , , both meaning "On Materia medica, Medical Material") , a 5-volume Greek encyclopedic pharmacopeia on herbal medicine and related medicinal substances, that was widely read for more than 1,500 years. For almost two millennia Dioscorides was regarded as the most prominent writer on plants and plant drugs. Life A native of Anazarbus, Cilicia, Asia Minor, Dioscorides likely studied medicine nearby at the school in Tarsus, Mersin, Tarsus, which had a pharmacological emphasis, and he dedicated his medical books to Laecanius Arius, a medical practitioner there. Though he writes he lived a "soldier's life" or "soldier-like life", his pharmacopeia refers almost solely to plants found in the Greek-speaking eastern Mediterranean, making it likely that he served in campaigns, or travelled in a civilian capacity, less widely as supposed. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
