Black henbane – Hyoscyamus niger L. The Ukrainian name is blekota black, popular names are blekot, glare, toothbrush, nimitsya black, lyulnik, lyaluk, lyuluk; hibernation, etc.
Solanaceae family – Solanaceae.
Leaves are used for medicinal purposes.
Found throughout Ukraine. It grows in villages in weedy places, near fences, in yards, as well as a weed in vegetable gardens, in gardens, less often in fields and roadsides. Usually forms groups or small thickets. Often and relatively in large quantities, giving the possibility of industrial harvesting, found in the forest-steppe and steppe regions (Khmelnitsky, Vinnitsa, Cherkasy, Kirovograd, Zaporozhye, Dnepropetrovsk, Crimean, Donetsk, Voroshilovgrad, Kharkov, Poltava, Kyiv regions), much less often in Polissya , Carpathians, Crimean mountains.
Stocks of raw materials are large. Dozens of tons of leaves can be harvested annually. Improving the sanitary condition of settlements, increasing the culture of agriculture gradually lead to a decrease in the amount of henbane. The plant is introduced into industrial culture in the state farms of Soyuzlekrasprom.
Black henbane is a biennial with a taproot, slightly branched root. Stems solitary, sticky with glandular grey-green hairs. The leaves are alternate, oblong-ovate, with large teeth. The flowers are large, collected in dense, many-flowered, leafy curls. Calyx green, 5-8-lobed, corolla 5-lobed. Stamens five, pistil one, with upper ovary. The fruit is a bilocular, ovoid, calyxed, multi-seeded pod that opens with a hemispherical lid. Seeds are small, kidney-shaped, flattened, brownish-gray, with a mesh surface. Blooms from the second half of June to August. The fruits ripen in August – September.
The whole plant is highly poisonous.
In addition to black henbane, there are several other species from the same genus. The annual form of black henbane grows throughout Ukraine, often isolated as a separate species of field henbane H. agrestis Kit. (N. bohemicus FW Schmidt). This species is also allowed for use in medicine. The rest are not yet well understood.
Leaves are harvested from plants of the first year of life (rosettes) in late summer – early autumn (August – September), and the second year – during flowering. The rosette leaves are cut with knives or sickles, and the stem leaves are plucked by hand. Do not collect leaves affected by powdery mildew, also wet from rain or dew drops, as they turn brown when dried. The collected leaves in the container are not compacted so as not to cause blackening during drying.
Dry raw materials in attics under an iron roof or under sheds with good ventilation, spreading a thin layer (1-2 cm) on cloth or paper. It is better to dry in dryers after drying in darkened, well-ventilated areas. The yield of dry raw materials is 16-18%.
According to the Global Fund – X Art. 279, GOST 1997-73 raw material consists of glandular-hairy leaves 3-30 cm long and 3-10 cm wide, brownish above, gray-green below, without petioles. The smell is weak, peculiar, narcotic. Taste is not determined (poisonous). Humidity is not higher than 14%. Not more than (percent) is allowed in raw materials: darkened and browned leaves – 3, other parts of henbane – 5, crushed parts (passing through a sieve with a hole diameter of 3 mm) – 8, organic (parts of other plants) and mineral impurities – 1 each.
The content of alkaloids must be at least 0.05%.
Raw materials are packed, pressing, in bales or bales of 50, 75, 100 kg. Stored in dry, well-ventilated rooms in the group of poisonous and potent raw materials. Storage period up to 2 years. Rechecking is not done.
All parts of the plant contain alkaloids of the tropane group (hyoscyamine, scopolamine, etc.). The leaves are used as an antispasmodic and analgesic, for the manufacture of bleached oil and anti-asthma drugs in the form of a collection and cigarettes (asthmatin, asthmatol), dry extract.