# Henbane (Hyoscyamus niger)

**Hyoscyamus*; Greek *hyoskyamos*, “hog’s bean”*

**Known today as.** *Hyoscyamus niger*, of the nightshade family.

Kind: Plant  
Qualities: Cold in the third degree (Galenic tradition).  
Poisoning: Tropane (anticholinergic) poisoning (https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/poisons/anticholinergic)  
Toxic: yes

> **Caution.** Poisonous: delirium, hallucination, and death in overdose.

## What does modern science say?

Its hyoscyamine and scopolamine are deliriants; scopolamine remains in use against motion sickness in tiny, controlled doses.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **hyoscyamine**: 
- **scopolamine**: 

**Mechanism.** Muscarinic blockade, with scopolamine’s sedation and amnesia.

**Dose.** The seeds hold most; a few grams have poisoned.

**Standing.** Henbane leaf is in a few European pharmacopoeias still; the extracted alkaloids are the drugs.

## What lore surrounds it?

Early modern writers on magic, Giambattista della Porta among them, described “witches’ ointments” compounded of sleep-bringing herbs of this family, and modern historians have wondered whether their effects lie behind reports of night flight to the sabbath.

The name carries its lore: “bane” meant simply “that which causes death” when the word entered English around 1265, and one proposed root reaches back to a word for vision and magical power. Henbane seeds were found in a Viking-age grave at Fyrkat in Denmark, and some historians have wondered whether the plant, not only drink, fed the berserkers’ rage. Albertus Magnus, about 1250, listed henbane among the herbs necromancers burned to summon the dead.

## What did the older authorities say?

**Dioscorides.** Gives it to bring sleep and to ease pain, and warns that it brings madness.

**Medieval dentistry.** The seeds were burned and the smoke drawn into the mouth to drive out the “worms” thought to cause toothache.

## Sources

- Dioscorides, *De materia medica*.
- Giambattista della Porta, *Magia naturalis* (1558).
- Wikipedia, “*Hyoscyamus niger*.”
- Nelson, L. S., et al. (2007). *Handbook of Poisonous and Injurious Plants*.

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*Henbane.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-09-25. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/henbane

Historical description, not medical advice.