Black Henbane

Hyoscyamus niger
THIS PLANT IS SOLD FOR ORNAMENTAL PURPOSES ONLY. DO NOT INGEST, ALL PARTS OF THE PLANT ARE TOXIC  TO HUMANS AND ANIMALS.

Hyoscamus albus was the most commonly used magical and medicinal plant of European
antiquity (Schneider 1974, 2:184*). Though it is commonly referred to as yellow henbane
today, it was more commonly known as white henbane in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries. Much earlier it was described in detail by Dioscorides (4.69), who characterized it as
the species with the greatest medicinal value. Pliny had similar things to say in his Natural
History (first century): The plant that is known to us as apollinarus and by some as altercum,
and among the Greeks as hyoskyamos, is also ascribed to Hercules. There are several species of
this: one [Hyoscyamus niger] has a black seed and almost purple-red flowers, is thorny at the
calyx, and grows in Galatia; while the common species [Hyoscyamus muticus (?)] is whiter,
bushier, and taller than the poppy; the seeds of the third are similar to those of the wild radish;
all three species produce frenzy [insania] and dizziness. The fourth species is soft, woolly, and
fatter than the other species, has a white seed, and thrives in coastal areas. This [Hyoscyamus
albus] is used by physicians, as is the one with the reddish seeds. But sometimes the white seed
also becomes red when it is not yet ripe, and this is discarded. In general, the plant is not
collected anywhere until it has become dry. It has the property of wine, which is why it
unnerves the senses and the head. The seeds are used both by themselves and pressed as juice.
This juice is pressed separately, as is that of the stems and leaves. The root is also made use of;
but this, in my opinion, is a hazardous medicine. It is known that the leaves as well confuse the
mind when more than four are taken in a drink; but according to the opinion of the elderly, in82
wine they will dispel fever. From the seeds is produced . . . an oil that will confuse the reason
even if dripped into the ear, and it is remarkable that those who have drunk of it are given
medicines as if for a poison, and yet it itself is used as a medicine. (Pliny 25.17, 35–37) In
England, the tobacco (Nicotiana rustica, Nicotiana tabacum) imported from the New World
was identified as a species of henbane (Hyoscyamus peruvianus). In the seventeenth century,
the word tobacco was a kind of synonym for herbs that could be smoked. The so-called little
yellow henbane (Hyoscyamus luteus) that was grown in many English gardens and appears to
sow itself was known as English tobacco (Gerard 1633, 356*). This is a clear indication that
henbane, a European native, was once numbered among the smoking herbs and may have been
used for ritual purposes (cf. Golowin 1982*). Today, yellow henbane has only a negligible
pharmaceutical significance in the production of tropane alkaloids (Sauerwein and Shimomura
1991). Hyoscyamus albus lives from one to three years and is the most easily grown of all
henbane species. The seeds need only be loosely broadcast over sandy, clayey, or even poor
soil. Water occasionally at first, but never overwater. This heat-resistant plant also thrives in
crevices of old walls and between rocks. In the Mediterranean region, the plant flowers from
April to May, while in central Europe (where it is grown as a cultivar), it flowers from June to
September. The entire plant is harvested while still in bloom and hung by the roots in a well-
aired location. Drying requires from three to six weeks. The dried herbage can be smoked as a
treatment for asthma, bronchitis, and coughs (in an amount equal to that contained in one
cigarette). An aphrodisiac smoking blend can be produced by combining equal parts of the
plant, hemp flowers (Cannabis indica, Cannabis sativa), and dried fly agaric mushrooms
(Amanita muscaria). A “prophetic delirium” can be produced by inhaling the smoke of burning
henbane seeds. The fresh or dried herbage can be added to wine and used as a remedy for pains
and cramps. For information about dosages, see Hyoscyamus muticus and Hyoscyamus
niger. In Morocco, it is said that twice the amount that can be taken up by the fingertips is
sufficient to produce hallucinogenic effects (Vries 1984*). Henbane, and in particular this
species, was certainly the most important ancient means for producing a trance state and clearly
was ingested by many oracles and soothsayers (sibyls, Pythias). It was the “dragon plant” of the
ancient earth oracle of Gaia, the “madness-inducing” plant of the Colchic oracle of the witch
goddess Hecate, the “Zeus bean” of the oracle of Zeus-Ammon of late ancient times and the
Roman Jupiter, and the “Apollo’s plant” of Delphi and other oracles of the god of “prophetic83
madness” 166 (Rätsch 1987). The seeds, both alone and in combination with other substances,
were usually burned as a ritual incense and inhaled, or the leaves were added to wine and
drunk. When the soothsayers and prophetesses inhaled the smoke or drank the wine after their
ritual ablutions, they called to the oracular deity, usually Apollo. When they had been possessed
by the god, they would lose their human consciousness and proclaim the messages of Apollo
through their mouths. Priests then “translated” (i.e., interpreted and proclaimed as the words of
the oracle) their often unintelligible babbling, sighing, and groaning (Kerényi 1983; Maas 1993;
Parke 1985, 1988; Roberts 1984). In Morocco, the herbage or the seeds of sikram, “inebriant,”
as the plant is known (cf. Hyoscyamus muticus), are still burned for psychoactive purposes or
used as an ingredient in psychoactive incenses, usually in combination with the seeds
of Peganum harmala (Vries 1994*). The legendary physician Hippocrates (ca. 460–
370 B.C.E.) praised the medicinal use of henbane. His students, the Hippocratics, administered
the seeds with wine to treat fever, tetanus, and gynecological ailments. Donkey’s milk was
listed as an antidote for overdoses. Yellow henbane was one of the most important analgesics of
antiquity. According to Galen (ca. 130–199 C.E.), it was the main ingredient in a soporific and
sedative agent known as philonion, which consisted of five parts saffron (Crocus sativus), one
part each of Pyrethrum, Euphorbium, and Spica nardi, twenty parts each of white pepper (Piper
album = Piper nigrum) and henbane, and ten parts opium (cf. soporific sponge). On Cyprus,
crushed leaves are still used as an analgesic plaster. The dried leaves are smoked together with
tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) as a remedy for asthma (Georgiades 1987, 2:56*). In the Golan
Heights (Israel), various preparations of the leaves (decoctions, pastes) are used externally to
treat skin diseases, open wounds, headaches, rheumatism, inflammations of the eye, and insect
stings (Dafni and Yaniv 1994, 13*). The entire plant contains the tropane
alkaloids hyoscyamine and scopolamine, along with aposcopolamine, norscopolamine,
littorine, tropine, cuscohygrine, tigloidine, and tigloyloxytropane, in concentrations similar to
those found in Hyoscyamus niger. The psychoactive effects of henbane were well known in
ancient times and were characterized as mania, or madness. It should be noted, however, that
the Greeks used the term madness to characterize not a pathological state but, rather, a dramatic
alteration of consciousness: Madness (mania): in kind there is but one madness, but in form it
appears in a thousand ways. Its nature is a chronic condition of being out-of-oneself. . . . Even
the inebriation of wine can heat one to insanity; even edible things produce frenzy, such as the84
mandrake [Mandragora officinarum] or henbane. But all of this does not fall under the name
of madness; for it passes as quickly as it arrived. (Aretaeus, De causis et signis morborum
chronicorum1:6)