Witnessed by: TCM · Ayurveda · Western · Unani
Henbane (Hyoscyamus niger), of the Solanaceae family. Clammy, foetid annual or biennial with lobed grey-green leaves and dull funnel flowers netted in lurid purple veins; native range: Eurasia and the Mediterranean; naturalised across the temperate world. Globally recognized as parasika yavani ('Persian ajwain') in Sanskrit, khurasani ajwain in Hindi, tian xian zi (天仙子) in Chinese, banj / bazr-ul-banj (the seed) in Arabic, and black henbane, stinking nightshade, devil's-eye in English. The part used is leaf and flowering top; and the seed. The whole plant is sticky-hairy and heavy with a rank, narcotic, nauseous stench; the flowers a sallow yellow veined with blood-purple, the ripe pyxis shedding countless minute grey seeds.
In this cross-tradition database, we analyze how this substance operates across world medicine systems — tracking its traditional tastes, temperatures, tissue affinities, post-digestive effects, and planetary correspondences across Ayurveda, Unani, and Western herbalism.
HENBANE
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- henbane
- Scientific name
- Hyoscyamus niger L.
- Family
- Solanaceae
Form
- Part used
- leaf and flowering top; and the seed
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- TCM
- bitter · pungent
- Ayurveda
- dominant: bitter (tikta) · pungent (katu)
- Western
- acrid · bitter
- Unani
- bitter · acrid
Temperature
TCM: warm (and gravely toxic)
Ayurveda: heating (ushna)
Western: cold (Saturnine and narcotic, in the Galenic reckoning)
Unani: cold & dry (3rd degree)
convergence: a true doctrinal split — the Greco-Arabic and old European schools class every narcotic as COLD (henbane cold in the 3rd degree, ruled by Saturn), while the Chinese reckon the seed WARM; the divergence is of theory, not of the plant
Affinity
where in the body it travels
Organs / channels
- TCM
- Heart · Stomach · Liver
- Western
- nervous system · nerves
- Unani
- brain · nerves · stomach
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- TCM
- stops pain and calms spasm, quiets wheeze and cough — a toxic drug used sparingly
- Ayurveda
- vedana-sthapana (analgesic), nidrajanana (hypnotic), shulaprashamana (antispasmodic), madakari (narcotic)
- Western
- anodyne, hypnotic, antispasmodic, mydriatic, anticholinergic (drying to secretions)
- Unani
- munawwim (hypnotic), musakkin (sedative-anodyne), mukhaddir (narcotic), habis (checks secretions)
Cautions
Contraindications: glaucoma, prostatic enlargement and urinary retention, tachycardia and heart disease, paralytic ileus; pregnancy, lactation, the young and the old; never given without expert supervision
Toxicity: a deadly anticholinergic poison rich in hyoscyamine, hyoscine (scopolamine) and atropine — overdose brings the tropane toxidrome: dry burning mouth, flushed hot skin, dilated unreactive pupils and blurred vision, racing pulse, urinary retention, wild delirium and hallucination, convulsions, then coma and death from respiratory failure ('hot as a hare, dry as a bone, red as a beet, mad as a hatter, blind as a bat'). The seeds are the commonest cause of poisoning, mistaken for edible seed.
Interactions
- Western
- anticholinergics: additive antimuscarinic blockade — compounding delirium, hyperthermia, ileus and retention · sedatives / CNS depressants: additive central nervous depression with the narcotic action · antihypertensives: tachycardia and pressor effects oppose blood-pressure control
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