Henbane (Hyoscyamus niger)
Flowers: Summer. Height: Up to 60cm (24in).
Also called Stinking Nightshade, Henbane it is a very poisonous plant which had to be used with care.
Medicinal: Bald’s Leechbook, an Anglo Saxon medical text, written in the 9th century, recommended Henbane root be boiled in vinegar or wine and the liquid used to treat toothache. The leaves would cool inflammations of the eye or any part of the body. It would reduce the pain of gout, sciatica, other joint pain and headaches, calm swellings and aid appetite. Seeds in a drink, compress or poultice were used as an anaesthetic for earache and there is evidence from medieval times of people surviving amputation and major surgery by using a rag soaked in Henbane. John Gerard’s Herball (1597) states “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. To wash the feet in a decoction of Henbane, as also the often smelling of the flowers, causeth sleep.”
Culinary: Henbane was one of the ingredients in gruit, a herb mixture traditionally used in beer as a flavouring.
Magic & Myth: The plant has a long association with witchcraft and sorcery and possession of it was enough to convict one of witchcraft. There are many mentions of it in 16th and 17th century witch trials. Albertus Magnus’ De Vegetalibus (1250), reported that necromancers used Henbane to invoke demons and the souls of the dead.
