Related to : White Henbane (Hyoscamus Albus) and Hyoscamus Aureus, neither of which seem to have been seen in the UK for several decades. Henbane too is quickly disappearing from the UK.

Uniquely identifiable characteristics

Distinguishing Feature : Large euphonium-shaped flowers coloured a creamy yellow netted with dark purple veins.

No relation to : Cowbane, Wolfsbane, Leopardsbane, or any of the Fleabanes [plants with similar names]

Henbane is deadly poisonous, its black berries even more so. It is a biennial that grows near the seaside on sand or shingle, or inland on disturbed ground. It is a rare plant that is rather common on Walney Island. The plant was the one used by Dr Crippen to poison his wife. The fruit is a green capsule nestled within the five broad green sepals, turning into a large glossy black berry.

As a member of the Nightshade Family, along with Deadly Nightshade and other deadly poisonous plants, some more poisonous than others, it has a repertoire of interesting poisonous compounds. Many of the Nightshade family, like Bittersweet, Potato and Tomtato, contain deadly poisonous glycoalkaloids such as Solanine, Chaconine and Tomatine. Henbane, Thorn Apple (which Americans call 'jimsonweed'), Apple-of-Peru and Deadly Nightshade go a step above those poisons. Henbane contains toxic tropane alkaloids such as Scopolamine, Hyoscine and Atropine.

Atropine is a toxic tropane alkaloid which is also present in Deadly Nightshade and Thorn-apple, both members of the same Nightshade Family as which Henbane belongs. Atropine is a pharmaceutical used to dampen the parasympathetic nervous system. It is also used in the eye, both as a mydriatic to dilate the pupils and as a cycloplegic to stop bright lights from constricting the iris via the accommodation reflex. It accomplishes this by paralysing the dilatory muscles in the eye. Because its effects are very slow to wear off, it is not used for short ophthalmic examinations where the drug Tropicamide is preferred. Atropine is also used to treat extremely low pulse rates, which it accomplices by paralysing the vagus nerve which otherwise acts to slow the heart-rate, thus an increase in heart rate results. It is also given to counteract some of the effects of organophosphate (nerve gas and some insecticides) poisoning. Atropine is a racemic mixture of the optically rotating isomers dextro-hyoscamine and laevo-hyoscamine, the latter of which is the most active pharmacologically. Scopolamine, somewhat confusingly also known as Hyoscine or Laevo-Duboisine, is a tropane alkaloid related to Hyoscamine. The racemic mixture of Laevo-Hyoscamine and Dextro-Hyoscine is known as Atroscine. Scopolamine has one extra oxygen atom and it too is a dangerously poisonous pharmaceutical found in Henbane, Deadly Nightshade, Thorn-apple and related species, some not native to the UK. It is an anti-cholinergic drug, used in minute quantities as a skin-patch (not taken orally!) to relieve travel sickness. Scopolamine is one of the three components of Belladonna tinctures, which obtains its name from Deadly Nightshade (Atropa Belladonna) which also lends its name to Atropine. Belladonna (which in Italian means a beautiful wide-eyed maiden), is the reason (Atropa Belladonna), which contains Atropine which dilates the pupils making them wide, is so named.

Cocaine, a naturally occurring substance in Coco plants (non-indigenous to the UK) has a similar structure to both hyoscamine and Scopolamine. Coca-Cola company ceased putting this poison into their Coco-cola drinks some while ago, which is just as well really, since it too is toxic. Cocaine no longer has any uses medicinally.

Both Meteloidine and Littorine are Tropane Alkaloids found in Henbane and a few other plants. They are not as well known as the above. Littorine is an intermediate of the other Tropane Alkaloids, which are all derived from Tropane, which is itself probably absent from the plants.

Hygrine is a Pyrrolidine Alkaloid rather than a Tropane Alkaloid and is found mainly in the leaves of the Coca plant from which Cocaine is obtained. It is a liquid rather than a solid.

Tropane Alkaloids such as nearly all of the above are found in the non-native Mandrake and Coco plants, plus Deadly Nightshade Japanese Lantern, Cock's Eggs, Thorn Apple which all belong to the Nightshade Family. But they are also found in some Bindweeds, some Orchids, some Spurges and some Brassicas which do not.

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