Lesser bean-trefoil

Statema, B. C. P.

Plant

Lesser bean-trefoil

Anagiride minore

Known today as: Stinking bean trefoil, Anagyris foetida, a Mediterranean shrub. “Female bean trefoil” in the oil of ch. 9 is the same plant.
Kind: Plant, in 1 older authority
Constituents: cytisine, anagyrine, N-methylcytisine
Poisoning: Nicotinic poisoning (coniine, nicotine, cytisine)
Earliest authority here: Pliny (AD 23/24–79)
In other databases: Plants of the World Online search · GBIF search · Wikidata search
In the Canale glossary: On the Manner of Discerning and Healing the Bewitched, Appendix A: Part Three, Chapter 5: Vomitory Medicines

Revised October 1, 2026: An older authority added from a text read in full. Lore added from texts read in full. Version 1, first published September 25, 2026.

Caution. Hazardous in some form or dose; see the modern assessment below.

Lesser bean-trefoil: what did Canale use it for?

Seeds and inner bark as a powerful vomit (chs. 5, 9).

Lesser bean-trefoil: what does modern science say?

A genuine emetic and purgative, and poisonous; the plant contains cytisine, anagyrine, and related alkaloids.

Lesser bean-trefoil: is it poisonous?

Yes, in some form or dose. Its poisoning is nicotinic poisoning (coniine, nicotine, cytisine): Minutes to an hour. Historical description, not medical advice; in a poisoning, call a poison centre.

Pharmacognosy & Toxicology

Constituents

cytisine ChEMBLa quinolizidine alkaloid
anagyrine ChEMBLthe alkaloid named for the plant, teratogenic in cattle
N-methylcytisine ChEMBL

Mechanism

Anagyris foetida, the stinking bean trefoil: its seeds and bark carry cytisine and anagyrine, nicotinic agonists that vomit violently and then, in quantity, paralyse breathing; Canale’s “powerful vomit” was a laburnum-class poisoning stopped at the vomiting. Anagyrine causes crooked-calf disease in cattle that graze lupins.

Checked against ChEMBL

cytisine: ChEMBL’s curated mechanism: partial agonist Neuronal acetylcholine receptor; alpha4/beta2.

Toxic dose

A few seeds vomit; more has killed; there is no therapeutic margin.

Syndrome

Nicotinic poisoning (coniine, nicotine, cytisine)

Standing

No use; a plant of the Mediterranean scrub avoided by goats.

Frohne, D., and Pfänder, H. J. (2005). Poisonous Plants, 2nd ed., “Fabaceae.” Book, not indexed
Keeler, R. F. (1989). “Piperidine alkaloid composition and relation to crooked calf disease-inducing potential of Lupinus formosus.” Teratology 40. Verified against its record · doi:10.1002/tera.1420400503

The abstract of each source, beneath its citation. For Club members. About the Club or sign in.

Constituent names open the compound’s record at PubChem, and “ChEMBL” beside a name opens its record at ChEMBL, the European Bioinformatics Institute’s database of bioactive molecules. Where a mechanism line was checked against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37, read 1 October 2026), the check is shown with the measured value and its source paper, or says plainly that nothing has been measured. Doses are as the references give them, for description only; this is not medical advice. Each source carries the result of its check against Crossref, PubMed, or the authority’s page: see Verification.

Lesser bean-trefoil: what lore surrounds it?

Folkard records the ancient aversion to beans “arising from the resemblance of the fruit to a portion of the human body”: Pythagoras “recognised blood, and consequently an animal,” and was killed “because, having in his flight reached a field of Beans, he would not cross it for fear of trampling upon living beings, the souls of the dead.” The Roman Lemures went by night “throwing Beans against” houses, and in May the people threw black beans on graves. Of the trefoil, “among the Romans, the Grass crown made of Trefoil-leaves was esteemed a mark of very high honour.”

Lesser bean-trefoil: what did the older authorities say?

Pliny: Describes the anagyros, “known to some by the name of acopon,” as a shrub-like plant “with an offensive smell,” a blossom like the cabbage, and a kidney-shaped seed in long horn-like pods that hardens at harvest; its leaves are applied to gatherings and “attached to the person in cases of difficult parturition, care being taken to remove them the moment after delivery.”

Sources

[4] Aliboudhar, H., Tigrine-Kordjani, N., & Lakache, Z. (2022). Identification and evaluation of free radical scavenging activity of quinolizidine alkaloids isolated from various parts of Anagyris foetida plant. Pharmaceutical Chemistry Journal 56: 966–973. doi:10.1007/s11094-022-02734-8 Verified against its record · doi:10.1007/s11094-022-02734-8
[64] Innocenti, G., Dall’Acqua, S., Viola, G., & Loi, M. C. (2006). Cytotoxic constituents from Anagyris foetida leaves. Fitoterapia 77(7–8): 595–597. doi:10.1016/j.fitote.2006.06.012 Verified against its record · doi:10.1016/j.fitote.2006.06.012

Pliny the Elder, Natural History 27.13, trans. J. Bostock & H. T. Riley (1855), Perseus Digital Library. Primary text
Folkard, R. (1884). Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics, “Beans.” Project Gutenberg #44638. Primary text
Folkard, R. (1884). Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics, “Trefoil.” Project Gutenberg #44638. Primary text

Verification

Checked

October 1, 2026

Passes

Every sentence read against its sources, in the pass over the remaining 343 entries
The Standing line checked against the authority it names (EMA, WHO, FDA, CITES, Commission E)
Every dated or regulatory claim checked by category across the database
The mechanism read against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37): curated mechanisms and measured activity
Each quotation from the older authorities checked word for word against the text, read in full

Sources

7 cited: 3 verified against its record, 3 primary text, 1 book, not indexed. 1 with the abstract on file.

Corrections

None were needed.

What was checked, how, and what was found is set out on the Verification page. A checked source is one whose record was found; it does not make the entry medical advice.

Cite This Entry

Version 1 · first published September 25, 2026 · last revised October 1, 2026

Chicago: “Lesser bean-trefoil.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified October 1, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/lesser-bean-trefoil.
MLA: “Lesser bean-trefoil.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 1 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/lesser-bean-trefoil. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
APA: Lesser bean-trefoil. (2026, October 1). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 8, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/lesser-bean-trefoil

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