Hyoscyamus niger

• 1. Introduction

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  Hyoscyamus niger, the plant the medieval world called henbane, carries a name that dates back to AD 1265 and translates, essentially, to "thing that causes death". Yet for thousands of years, across Europe, Asia, and the Arab world, people sought this plant out. They brewed it into beer, rubbed its oils on their skin, used it to numb pain, and reportedly flew through the night on its vapors. What was this poisonous weed that doubled as medicine, sacrament, and weapon? How did it shape the confessions of accused witches and survive into modern pharmacies? And what happened when a German scientist named Michael Schenck decided to try it for himself?

• 2. A Plant With Many Names

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  The Indo-European root bhelena, meaning "crazy plant", is one of the oldest threads in henbane's etymology. A separate Proto-Germanic element, bil, contributed meanings that include "vision", "hallucination", "magical power", and "miraculous ability". These are not the names of an ordinary weed. Henbane belongs to the nightshade family Solanaceae, within the tribe Hyoscyameae, and grows natively across temperate Europe and Siberia. It also answers to black henbane and stinking nightshade. The ancient Romans knew it well. Pliny described it as "of the nature of wine and therefore offensive to the understanding". Dioscorides took a more practical view, recommending it as a sedative and analgesic. The plant, recorded under the name Herba Apollinaris, was also used by priestesses of Apollo to produce oracles. John Gerard's Herball captures the spectrum of its effects: "The leaves, the seeds and the juice, when taken internally cause an unquiet sleep, like unto the sleep of drunkenness, which continueth long and is deadly to the patient." That same Herball noted that washing the feet in a henbane decoction, or simply smelling the flowers, was enough to bring on sleep.

• 3. Brews, Brews, and Beer

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  Henbane was once a standard ingredient in gruit, the herbal mixture traditionally used to flavor beer before hops became dominant. The recipe that survives calls for 40 g of dried chopped henbane herbage, 5 g of bayberry, 23 L of water, 1 L of brewing malt, 900 g of honey, 5 g of dried yeast, and brown sugar. It was not a casual addition. Henbane fell out of use in brewing across the 11th to 16th centuries as hops spread through Europe. The shift became law in Bavaria when the Purity Law of 1516 restricted beer ingredients to barley, hops, yeast, and water, effectively banning henbane from the barrel. Henbane also found its way into anaesthetic potions, blended with mandrake, deadly nightshade, and datura. These combinations were used for their psychoactive properties, including visual hallucinations and what users described as a sensation of flight. The plant was said to spread from continental Europe to England during the Middle Ages. Albertus Magnus, writing in his work De Vegetalibus in 1250, reported that necromancers used henbane smoke as a fumigant when invoking the souls of the dead and demons.

• 4. Witchcraft and Confession

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  By the Late Middle Ages, henbane had become inseparably linked to witchcraft and malefic practices. A document from 1864, attributed to Perger, records the bluntness with which this connection was drawn: "The witches drank the decoction of henbane and had those dreams for which they were tortured and executed." The same source describes henbane used in witches' ointments, in weather-working, and in conjuring spirits. During a Pomeranian witchcraft trial in 1538, a suspected witch confessed to giving a man henbane seeds so that he would run around "crazy", a word the record equates with sexual arousal. An Inquisition trial file contains the admission of a woman who claimed to have strewn henbane seeds between two lovers while speaking a formula: "Here I sow wild seed, and the devil advised that they would hate and avoid each other until these seeds had been separated." This was recorded by Marzell in 1922. The plant's pharmaceutical action, which genuinely produces hallucinations, delirium, and altered states, gave real experiential weight to these confessions, whether they were coerced or not. Henbane seeds have also been found in a Viking grave near Fyrkat, Denmark, first described in 1977. Analysis of the symptoms of henbane intoxication has led some researchers to propose that berserkers may have used the plant to induce the heightened rage state they carried into battle.

• 5. Michael Schenck's Account

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  Alexander Kuklin's book How Do Witches Fly? includes the account of German scientist Michael Schenck, who documented his personal experience with black henbane. Schenck's description of the first physical phase is precise: "My limbs lost certainty, pains hammered in my head, and I began to feel extremely giddy." He noted that his pupils dilated so dramatically that the normally blue iris appeared entirely black. His face looked flushed in the mirror, and the mirror itself seemed to sway. Then the second phase arrived. Schenck reported animals watching him with "contorted grimaces and staring, terrified eyes", alongside "terrifying stones and clouds of mist" sweeping in one direction and carrying him with them. He wrote of "a vague gray light, which emitted a dull glow and rolled onward and upward into a black and smoky sky". Words reached him but they were "wrong and nonsensical" while somehow carrying hidden meaning. His pulse became rapid. This first-person account is not an outlier. The standard alkaloid content in henbane has been reported at 0.03% to 0.28%, yet even those figures represent concentrations of hyoscyamine, scopolamine, and other tropane alkaloids that block the action of acetylcholine in the brain and antagonize the muscarinic receptors, producing hallucinations, delirium, and an altered state of consciousness the pharmacology literature links to anticholinergic syndrome.

• 6. Toxicity and Modern Use

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  Initial effects of henbane ingestion typically last three to four hours, while aftereffects can persist for up to three days. Common symptoms include hallucinations, dilated pupils, narcosis, restlessness, and flushed skin. Less common effects include convulsions, hypertension, hyperpyrexia, and ataxia. Overdose can lead to coma, respiratory paralysis, and death. The lethal dosage has not been established. Henbane is toxic to cattle, wild animals, fish, and birds, though pigs are reportedly immune and are said to enjoy its effects. The larvae of some Lepidoptera species, including cabbage moths, feed on the plant without harm. Traditional preparations often bypassed oral ingestion deliberately; applying henbane transdermally in ointments allowed users to absorb scopolamine through the skin while avoiding the additional toxicity of atropine and hyoscyamine that comes with eating the plant. Today, henbane is cultivated primarily for pharmaceutical purposes in central and eastern Europe and in India, where its medicinal use is widespread and legal. In most Western countries, henbane material is available only by prescription. Sales of henbane oil, however, are not legally regulated in the United States and may be sold in ordinary shops. Adhesive patches containing henbane extract, worn behind the ear, are reported to prevent discomfort in people prone to motion sickness.

• 7. Misidentification and Ongoing Presence

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  Celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson accidentally recommended henbane as a "tasty addition to salads" in the August 2008 issue of Healthy and Organic Living magazine. The publication warned subscribers against consuming the "very toxic" plant after the error was caught, and Thompson admitted to having confused henbane with fat hen, a member of the spinach family. The mix-up underscores how a plant with such a well-documented history of toxicity can still catch people off guard. Henbane has traveled through the company of Romani people. It is sometimes identified as the "hebenon" poured into the ear of Hamlet's father in Shakespeare's play, though scholars point to other candidates. The Gribshunden, a royal Danish-Norwegian flagship that sank in 1495 near Ronneby, Sweden, was found to contain henbane among its assortment of imported spices during underwater excavation. Whether that henbane was carried for soothing toothache, as an anti-emetic, or to prevent motion sickness on long voyages remains unknown. The henbane found in that shipwreck, alongside the seeds in the Viking grave at Fyrkat, and the surviving Pomeranian trial records together suggest a plant that was never purely one thing: not purely poison, not purely medicine, and not purely folklore.