4 ms·

Henbane's active ingredient is scopolamine which, as with most strong anti-cholinergics, is a really bad trip. For Example: https://erowid.org/experiences/exp.

Henbane's active ingredient is scopolamine which, as with most strong anti-cholinergics, is a really bad trip. For Example: https://erowid.org/experiences/exp.php?ID=110604 https://erowid.org/experiences/exp.php?ID=110604

xen2xen1 4y ago
Is that the ones that they call the zombie drug on the TV shows?
- nszceta 4y ago
  Read post #2 https://bluelight.org/xf/threads/scopolamine.765088/ https://bluelight.org/xf/threads/scopolamine.765088/
- narrator 4y ago
  It's used in parts of Latin America by thieves to rob people. They become delirious and detached from reality and will do whatever the thieves want. Circe also used it in the Odyssey to turn Odysseus's men into pigs. Odysseus prevented succumbing to Circe's poison by taking galantamine from the flowers of Galanthus nivalis, which is an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor. Galantamine counteracts the effects of anticholinergics by inhibiting the enzyme that breaks down acetylcholine.
  - yesenadam 4y ago
    > Circe also used it in the Odyssey to turn Odysseus's men into pigs. What's that based on? I can't seem to find any mention (in this translation at least) of what Circe used. Beyond just "evil drugs", "baneful drugs" etc. https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136%3Abook%3D10%3Acard%3D208 https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext...
    - Amezarak 4y ago
      For some reason, in the humanities, especially with "pop" stuff like this, you can find a lot of extremely strong claims with basically zero backing. At any rate it's not a translation issue. You can see in your link, which also has the original Greek, that the phrase used is "pharmaka lugros", which means precisely what the translation said. Maybe there is some other tradition besides Homer that handed it down, but it's healthy to have a lot of skepticism with claims like this.
madaxe_again 4y ago
Henbane was used for all sorts, including brewing. As for the trip… we have it growing wild at our place, and I’ve been schooling myself as a herbalist/botanist, mostly for practical purposes. I’ve smoked it and had it in tea. It’s not a “oh wow I want to do that again!” but it’s also not “oh sweet Jesus no”. Floaty, tranquil, visuals not unlike DMT, and a terrible stomach upset. Some locals still use it, as an alternative to hemlock, to stun fish.
- pacaro 4y ago
  To build in the brewing part, before it was replaced by hops, it was the plant that gave its name "Bilsenkraut" to the city of Pilsen. So not just occasionally used, but significant enough that places where named for it
  - culi 4y ago
    Very interesting, thanks. I think there's often a cultural "plant blindness" we have nowadays, but it's hard to overstate how influential many plants have been on all human cultures. One fun thing I found out today: Linnaea is a genus of honeysuckle named after botanist Carl Linnaeus whose name derives from the Swedish lind or linden tree. So it's a plant named after a person named after a plant! I bet I could find a lot more examples like this if I kept digging. I only recently realized how common it is for names to derive from plants and I've had a lot of fun digging into it
  - realworldperson 4y ago
    [dead]
- Alex3917 4y ago
  > Some locals still use it, as an alternative to hemlock, to stun fish. Why is anyone using Hemlock to stun fish? Given there are dozens of plants that stun fish, it seems odd that folks would use one that's also absurdly toxic to humans.
  - culi 4y ago
culi 4y ago
Fair point. It's not really analogous to "dropping acid" as I put it, but we do have clear evidence of its use specifically for its hallucinogenic properties: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4224707/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4224707/ > In the Norwegian tradition, women put an ointment contain mixture of some plants such as BH on parts of the body with thin skin and became hallucinated > It Soothsayers applied BH as a component of their hallucinatory mixture
giantg2 4y ago
"anti-cholinergics" Based on what little I know, that sound scary.

xen2xen1 4y ago

Is that the ones that they call the zombie drug on the TV shows?

nszceta 4y ago
Read post #2 https://bluelight.org/xf/threads/scopolamine.765088/ https://bluelight.org/xf/threads/scopolamine.765088/
narrator 4y ago
It's used in parts of Latin America by thieves to rob people. They become delirious and detached from reality and will do whatever the thieves want. Circe also used it in the Odyssey to turn Odysseus's men into pigs. Odysseus prevented succumbing to Circe's poison by taking galantamine from the flowers of Galanthus nivalis, which is an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor. Galantamine counteracts the effects of anticholinergics by inhibiting the enzyme that breaks down acetylcholine.
- yesenadam 4y ago
  > Circe also used it in the Odyssey to turn Odysseus's men into pigs. What's that based on? I can't seem to find any mention (in this translation at least) of what Circe used. Beyond just "evil drugs", "baneful drugs" etc. https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136%3Abook%3D10%3Acard%3D208 https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext...
  - Amezarak 4y ago
    For some reason, in the humanities, especially with "pop" stuff like this, you can find a lot of extremely strong claims with basically zero backing. At any rate it's not a translation issue. You can see in your link, which also has the original Greek, that the phrase used is "pharmaka lugros", which means precisely what the translation said. Maybe there is some other tradition besides Homer that handed it down, but it's healthy to have a lot of skepticism with claims like this.

madaxe_again 4y ago

Henbane was used for all sorts, including brewing. As for the trip… we have it growing wild at our place, and I’ve been schooling myself as a herbalist/botanist, mostly for practical purposes. I’ve smoked it and had it in tea. It’s not a “oh wow I want to do that again!” but it’s also not “oh sweet Jesus no”. Floaty, tranquil, visuals not unlike DMT, and a terrible stomach upset. Some locals still use it, as an alternative to hemlock, to stun fish.

pacaro 4y ago
To build in the brewing part, before it was replaced by hops, it was the plant that gave its name "Bilsenkraut" to the city of Pilsen. So not just occasionally used, but significant enough that places where named for it
- culi 4y ago
  Very interesting, thanks. I think there's often a cultural "plant blindness" we have nowadays, but it's hard to overstate how influential many plants have been on all human cultures. One fun thing I found out today: Linnaea is a genus of honeysuckle named after botanist Carl Linnaeus whose name derives from the Swedish lind or linden tree. So it's a plant named after a person named after a plant! I bet I could find a lot more examples like this if I kept digging. I only recently realized how common it is for names to derive from plants and I've had a lot of fun digging into it
- realworldperson 4y ago
  [dead]
Alex3917 4y ago
> Some locals still use it, as an alternative to hemlock, to stun fish. Why is anyone using Hemlock to stun fish? Given there are dozens of plants that stun fish, it seems odd that folks would use one that's also absurdly toxic to humans.
- culi 4y ago

culi 4y ago

Fair point. It's not really analogous to "dropping acid" as I put it, but we do have clear evidence of its use specifically for its hallucinogenic properties: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4224707/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4224707/ > In the Norwegian tradition, women put an ointment contain mixture of some plants such as BH on parts of the body with thin skin and became hallucinated > It Soothsayers applied BH as a component of their hallucinatory mixture

giantg2 4y ago

"anti-cholinergics" Based on what little I know, that sound scary.