Castore Durante · New Herbal · 4 of 13

Black Henbane

HIOSCIAMO NERO.

Woodcut of black henbane: an upright stem with broad lobed leaves and bell-shaped flowers along the top.
Herbario nuovo, Rome, 1585. John Carter Brown Library.

Conciliat somnum Altercum, dentumq; dolores
Mitigat, atque oculis confert, refrigerat, atque
Inflammata iuuat, aufert sensumq; dolorum;
Destillata leuat, tussimq;; insania ab ipso
Affertur; sistitq; vndantia menstrua, fluxum et
Sanguinis; à partu mammisq; tumentibus, atque
Testibus inflatis hoc subuenit, atque podagris;
Omne valet tandem genus hoc sedare dolorum.

Henbane brings on sleep and soothes the pains of the teeth; it helps the eyes; it cools, and helps what is inflamed, and takes away the feeling of pain; it relieves the running of rheums, and the cough; and madness comes of it. It stops the menses in flood, and the flux of blood; it comes to the aid of breasts swollen after childbirth, of swollen testicles, and of the gout; in short, it can quiet every kind of pain.

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Translation © 2026 B. C. P. Statema. The Thinking Press, Kenosha, Wisconsin. All rights reserved.