Stem plant
Solanaceae, black henbane.
Medicinal drug
- Hyoscyami folium – hyoscyamus leaves
- Hyoscyami herba recens – Fresh henbane
Preparations
- Hyoscyami maceratum oleosum
- Hyoscyami oleum
- Hyoscyami tinctura
Ingredients
Tropane alkaloids: atropine, L-hyoscyamine, as in datura higher content of scopolamine than in belladonna.
Effects
Indications
- As an anticholinergic in colds, in spasms in the gastrointestinal tract.
- Contained in scar ointments
- In alternative medicine
Worth knowing
The witch Kirke used the “pig herb” Hyoscyamus to transform Odysseus’ companions into pigs. Odysseus receives the herb Moly from Hermes to protect him against the transformation. Hamlet’s father, the King of Denmark, was poisoned with henbane (Hamlet, I,V;). The juice was dripped into his ear, as told by his ghost: ” Sleeping within my orchard, My custom always of the afternoon, Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole, With juice of cursed hebenon in a vial, And in the porches of my ears did pour The leperous distilment; whose effect Holds such an enmity with blood of man That swift as quicksilver it courses through The natural gates and alleys of the body, And with a sudden vigour doth posset And curd, like eager droppings into milk, The thin and wholesome blood: so did it mine; And a most instant tetter bark’d about, Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust, All my smooth body. « Henbane was also added to beer. According to Rätsch (1996), the name Pilsener is not derived from the Czech city of Plzen (Pilsen), but from the plant formerly added to the beer, henbane. The German Purity Law of 1516 prohibited the addition of poisonous plants to beer.
