2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Black henbane (Latin Hyoscyamus niger) - a poisonous herbaceous biennial plant of the genus Belena (Latin Hyoscyamus), representing the Solanaceae family (Latin Solanaceae) on the planet. The Almighty did not skimp on toxic substances, endowing all parts of the Black Belena with them, turning the plant into an enemy of man. But people have learned to use the poisons of the plant for the benefit of their body, by measuring the doses of drugs taken from the plant. The resemblance of small seeds hiding in a jug-shaped fruit-box, covered with a round lid, to the seeds of the Poppy plant, poses a threat to people, especially children, who dare to try such a "poppy", saturated with deadly poisons.
What's in your name
The plant owes to the specific Latin epithet "niger" (black) the color of the throat of its bell flower, which stands out in contrast with its black-violet eye against the background of dirty yellow corolla petals.
Due to its ubiquity, the plant has numerous popular names, among which you can hear the following: Scab, Rabid, Zubnik, Mad Grass, Blekota and others.
Description
Relatively thick (up to three centimeters in diameter) taproot with numerous side roots, wrinkled, soft, in the first year of the plant's life, large long-stemmed leaves appear on the surface, which can be whole, with large teeth along the edge, or pinnate, with pointed ends at each blades.
In the second year of life, thick and strong erect stems appear, the height of which, depending on living conditions, varies from twenty centimeters to just over one meter. The stems are covered with sessile sticky leaves that hug their support. Numerous glandular hairs impart stickiness to the leaves. The sizes of stem leaves are inferior to those of rosette basal leaves, and their shape can be different, from whole leaves with sparse teeth along the edge, to notched-lobed, each lobe of which ends with a sharp nose..
Each shoot of a branching plant, like the main stem, from mid-June to July, is crowned with multi-flowered leafy curls with large flowers. The bell-shaped five-lobed corolla of flowers is whitish or dirty yellow with a black-violet pharynx, from which purple-violet veins diverge along the petals. Five stamens of different height with a hairy base and a pistil with a bare ovary and a columnar hairy in the lower part look out from the pharynx. The corolla is protected by a watery herbaceous calyx, five sepals of which end in triangular wide teeth. As the fruit ripens, the calyx increases in size and turns from grassy to woody, in its lower part covered with thick protruding hairs.
From the end of July to August, fruit-caps ripen, which are two-celled capsules filled with small numerous seeds, similar to poppy seeds and often misleading children, making them want to taste them. But, it is the seeds that are distinguished by the highest content of toxic substances.
Healing abilities
The highest concentration of a number of toxic alkaloids (atropine, hyoscyamine, scopolamine) is observed in the leaves during the beginning of flowering of black henbane, and in mature plant seeds, which determines the time of collection of medicinal raw materials.
In addition to alkaloids, the leaves contain a number of glycosides, and the seeds of black belena are rich in light yellow fatty oil, which occupies a third of all components. The oil contains linoleic acid, which occupies almost three quarters of the total oil; oleic acid, a little less than one quarter, and a number of unsaturated acids, at a rate of six percent.
Such a chemical composition of plant tissues allows preparations made from a plant to have an antispasmodic effect on human organs, including the respiratory system (with bronchial asthma), the organs of the digestive system (stomach ulcer), kidneys and liver (colic). Ophthalmologists use a drug to dilate the pupils.
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