f Intriguing World of Weeds /' Black Henbane1 i LARRY W. MITICH2

INTRODUCTION plant hycoscyhamos. He also mentioned "dioskyamos" Hyoscyamus, a highly diversified genus in the (bean of the gods) as an outmoded name, possibly Solailaceae, includes about 15 species of annuals bien­ related to the plant's use in religious rites (5). The nials, and pere~, native to the Medit~anean specific epithet nig~r is Latin for black or deathly (10), region, Asia, India and the Canary ~d possibly refers either to the plant's poisonous prin­ Islands. its best known species is ciples, or to the ancient belief that if it was "applied to black henbane (Hyoseyamus niger any part of the human body, the part touched would · turn black and rot" (12). L. #3 HSYNI). Despite its weedy tendency and poisonous nature, black henbane has great historical DESCRIPTION AND ECONOMIC IMPACT significance: it was and still is An introduced annual or biennial, black henbane is a _)Videly used in medicine. coarse, foul-smelling, and very hazardous weed, all parts being poisonous (7). Characteristically, it is found DISTRIBUTION AND NOMENCLATURE on somewhat dry roadsides and waste areas (11); how­ Black henbane is native from Scandinavia and south­ ever, it prefers rich soil (7). In England it is usually ern England to the Mediterranean and north Africa (15). found wild on sandy seacoasts and· as a weed on disturbed ground (14). Now it is distributed throughout Europe, in the Cauca­ The biennial form is most comm.on. The entire plant sus, Siberia, Iran, throughout Asia Minor, and in north­ is viscid and hairy. During the first·year, it develops a ern India, where it has been reported at altitudes up to large, whitish, branched tap root, reminiscent of a pars­ 4270 m (9). It is also found locally in the United States. nip, which bears a rosette of large, coarsely toothed, Black henbane 's most important names include com­ mon henbane (its association with hens possibly derived deeply cut leaves. Upon bolting, the plant develops an from the fact that its seeds .kill fowl), poison tobacco, erect, thick, coarse, widely branched stem, from 0.75 to 1.5 m tall, which bears yellow, funnel-shaped flowers hogbean, hogbane (9), fetid nightshade and insane root in long, leafy, sp~-like clusters. The flowers, promi­ (7). nently marked with purple veins (9), appear between The precursor or henbane is ''hennebonet" which first June and August (13). The fruit is an ovate, two-celled appeared in English in 1398. It, in turn, derived from capsule, with a "lid" that opens on maturity, releasing the much earlier "henbell" (ca. A.D. 1000), the first numerous brown or gray hard, pitted seeds. recorded name for the plant, which alluded to the The slender annual form seldom grows taller than species' bell-shaped calyx. By 1578 the name had 0.66 m, and has few if any branches; it develops on a evolved to henbane (17). smaller scale than the biennial fonn. Although culti­ Black henbane was classified by Carolus Linneaus in vated by 17th century herbalists (18), it eventually lost Species Plantarum in 1753 (1). The generic name favor to the more productive and more alkaloid-rich Hyoseyamus is from the Greek hyoskyamos: hys = hog, biennial form (9). and kyamos = bean, thus "hog's bean" (10). According In the U.S., black henbane escaped from cultivation to the ancient Greek herbalist Dioscorides, pigs could about 1670 (12) and became sparingly naturalized by eat its poisonous seed with impunity, and he called the 1859 (3), eventually finding a home in rather infrequent localities, particularly in the northwestern states and across southern Canada (6). Henbane is locally com­ 1No. 36 of the series "Intriguing World of Weeds." Contributions are mon in some areas of the northern Rocky Mountains. In we~me and will be acknowledged. Send contributions to Larry W. Mitich. ~t. Weed Sci., Dep. Bot., Univ. Calif., Davis, CA 95616. 1883, !twas spotted growing at Big Timber, Montana Letters following this symbol are a WSSA-approved computer code from (9); it still thrives in the state at elevations to over 2135 CompositeListofWeeds,Revlsed 1989.AvailablefromWSSA, 309 w. Clark St., Champaign, IL 61820. m.

489 Weed 'l'cc~logy. _1992. Volume 6.:489-491 lNTRIGUING WORID OF WEEDS

ANCIENT MEDICINAL USES Either treatment deranged the subject's senses, causing Black henbane has been used as a medicine from an­ frenzied delirium, near blindness and unbearable pain cient times. The Arabian "bendj" (henbane) was (12). Homer's nepenthe [a drug used to bring forgetfulness of Fortunately, other uses of henbane had far less dras­ -- sorrow or trouble]. And in The Thousand and One tic effects. Small pieces of root were hung around Nights it is written, "Presently he filled a cresset [a childrens' necks "as a preventer of the fitte" and about torch holder] with firewood on which he strewed pow­ infants "to cause an easy breeding of the teeth." In dered henbane, and lighting it, went round about the ''upgrown people," the seeds were sometimes smoked "for relieving the pains of the toothache" (12). An early tend with it till the smoke entered the nostrils of the guards, and they all fell asleep, drowned by the drug" contraceptive was made by mashing the seeds into paste with mare's milk and tying the paste in a piece of wild (9). The closely related white henbane (H. a/bus) was bull skin (9). one of Hippocrates' staple drugs in the 5th century B.C. "It (9). A 19th century American physician stated: is much better than opium, as it does not produce consti­ Both Pandanius Dioscorldes of Anazarbos (ca. A.O. pation." Combined with other preparations "it is most 60) (5) and Aulus Cornelius Celsus prescribed henbane excellent for gout, rheumatism, asthma, chronic cough, to induce sleep and relieve pain, and Celsus also admin­ neuralgia, and irritation of the urinary organs" (12). istered it externally. Celsus, a Roman encyclopedist of the first century A.O., wrote not only the most complete Roman medical text of the time but also De Medicina, a MEDICINAL AND OTHER PROPERTIES history of early medicine. The fresh or dried leaves, flowering tops, and seed of Pliny (fl. A.O. 60) recognized the psychogenic quali­ commercial henbane are used for their alkaloids- atro­ ties of the drug; wrote he: "Henbane is of the nature of pine, hyoscine and hyoscyamine. These alkaloids are wine, and therefore offensive to the understanding, and administered chiefly in tranquilizers and sedatives in troubles the head .•. [It ought] to be used with great cases of nervous infections, asthma, or whooping head and discretion. For this is certainly known, that, if cough, and in tablet form for sea sickness (12). Darling­ one take of it in drink more than four leaves, it will put ton (4) stated that "a small :fragment of a leaf, or a drop him beside himself' (9). of the juice of the plant falling into the eye, dilates the In his 1636 Herbal, Gerard (8) wrote: "Henbane pupil in a remarkable manner." He mentioned that causeth drowsiness, and miti,gateth all kinde of paine; it sometimes henbane was used as a substitute for opium. is good against hot and sharp distillations of the eyes Because of its anaesthetic properties, black henbane and other parts. To wash the feet in the decoction of juice was administered to the ill prior to amputations, henbane causeth sleepe." even though the plant's analgesic substances were not Culpeper (3) held black henbane in high regard. He reliable (12). wrote: "The leaves cool inflammations of the eyes and The plant's fresh leaves have a heavy, unpleasant any part of the body, and are good for the swelling of odor that is repulsive to mice and rats. When burned, the testicles, or womens' breasts, or elsewhere, if they the leaves sparkle and smell like tobacco (15). Cattle are boiled in wine, and either applied themselves, or the avoid grazing henbane thanks to its rough texture and fomentation warm.... The oil of the seed is good for repulsive odor, but hogs can be killed by consuming its deafness, noise and worms in the ears, being dropped fleshy roots (7). In past centuries, occasional livestock there; the juice of the herb or roots act the same." poisoning occurred; however, poisoning in human be­ ings, particularly children, was more :frequent (14). USE IN SORCERY Now poisonings are becoming rare because of the plant's infrequency in the wild, its strong distasteful­ Henbane's toxic properties became a mainstay for ness to animals, and the stricter handling of commerci~ professional poisoners (15). During the Middle Ages, production (13). Usually poisoning occurs from ac­ henbane was deemed essential to witchcraft, being the cidental overdoses or consumption by children (9). On principal drug employed in sorcery (15). A small one occasion, nine people -poisoned from eating hen­ amount of roasted seed was administered to a victim, or bane root reported that "all objects appeared scarlet for he/she was exposed to the fumes of burned leaves. 2 or 3 days" (16).

490 Volume 6, Issue 2 (April-June) 1992 C WEED TECHNOLOGY

COMMERCIAL PRODUCTION sonweed or stramonium (Datura stramonium L. Formerly, commercial henbane was DATST). available only from Europe (chiefly LITERATURE CITED Hungary, Belgium, France and Russia), India and the Sudan. However, henbane 1. Britton, N. L. and A. Brown. 1898. An mustrated Flora of the Northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions. Vol m. Olarles enjoyed limited cultivation in the U.S., Scribner's Sons, New Yolk. particularly during World Wars I and 2. Chopra, R. N., R. L. Badhwar, and S. Ghosh. 1965. Poisonous Plants of India. Vol. II. Indian Coun. Agric. Res., New Delhi. II. In the late 1940s, 38 metric tons 3. Culpeper, N. 18027 Culpeper's Herbal or The Complete English Family were produced annually. Physician, with additions by G. A. Gordon. Hogg and Co., London. 4. Darlington, W. 18S9. American Weeds and Usdul Plants. Orange Judd Now it requires too much hand labor for economical & Co., New York. production (18). Consequently, the U.S. supply comes S. Dioscorides, P. 19S9. The Greek Herbal of Dioscorides. R. T. Gunther, largely from plantations in Eng}and, Turkey and India ed. Hafner Publ Co., New York. 6. Fyles, F. 1920. Principal poisonous plants of Canada. Bull 39, 2nd Ser. (3). Cultivation in India began about 1839, expanded, Dom. of Canada, Dep. Agric., Ottawa. and then declined. Extensive commercial plantations 7. Georgia, A. B. 1942. A Manual of Weeds. The Macmillan Co., New York. were not established until the mid-1950s (2). 8. Gerard, J. 1928. Gerald's Herbal. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston. The leaves and flowering tops are harvested when 9. Hocking, G. M. 1947. Henbano-healing herb of Hercules and of Apollo. Econ. Bot. l:3~316. the plants are in full bloom. The material is transported 10. Jaeger, B. C. 1944. A Source-book of Biological Names and Terms, to a drying house and spread in thin layers on the ·floor 2nd Ed. Charles C Thomas, Springfield, n.. or in trays. Small amounts of heat and air currents are 11. Kingsbury, J. M. 1964. Poisonous Plants of the United States and Canada. Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, NI. provided to hasten drying and enhance color and quality 12. LeStrange, R. 1977. A Histoiy of Herbal Plants. Angus and Robertson, (9). Typical henbane yields are 665 kg ha-1 and first­ London. 13. Long, H. C. 1910. Common Weeds of Farm and Garden. Frederick A. year plants yield almost twice as much material as Stokes Co., New York. second-year plants. Henbane's worst enemy is .the Col­ 14. Long, H. C. 1917. Plants Poisonous to Livestock. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, England. orado potato beetle, which prefers this plant to all lS. Morton, 1. F. 1977. Major Medicinal Plants. Charles C. Thomas, others (9). Springfield, JL. Black henbane is still an officially recognized drug 16. Pratt, A. (undated). The Poisonous, Noxious and Suspected Plants of Our Fields and Woods. Soc. for Promoting Christian Knowledge, in U.S. medicine (15). The name "hyoscyamus" is used London. in both English and taxonomic references. Two other 17. Simpson, 1. A. and B.S.C. Weiner. 1989. The Oxford English Diction­ aiy, 2nd Ed. Clarendon Press, Oxford. important medicinal members of the Solanaceae are 18. Williams, L; 0. 1960. Drug and Condiment Plants. Agric. Handb. 172. belladonna (Atropa belladonna L. # ATBEL) and jim- U.S. Dep. Agric., Agric. Res. Serv., Washington, DC.

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