Diseases and effects: rheumatic and neuralgic pains, asthma.
Active ingredients: hyoscyamine, tropine, 1-scopolamine, hyoscine, apoarropin, apogioscin, belladonin, juscipicrin, chyuscerin, hyosciresin, methylesculin, rutin.
Collection time: August – September
plant description
Black henbane is a biennial winter plant of the nightshade family. Covered with soft, sticky, protruding fluff, has an unpleasant odor. The root is vertical, branched, soft, sometimes almost spongy, wrinkled, with a thickened root collar. Stems solitary, 20-115 cm high, branched, green, pubescent. The leaves are soft, dull, dark green, light, grayish below, with denser and longer pubescence along the veins and along the edges.
The flowers are few, at the beginning of flowering they are crowded on the tops of the stems and branches. Corolla dirty yellowish, rarely whitish with a network of purple-violet veins. The fruit is a pitcher-shaped, multi-seeded capsule. Seeds are small, numerous, resembling poppy seeds.
Henbane blooms in June – July; seeds ripen in July-August. Propagated only by seeds.
In medicine, rosette leaves of the first year of life are used, collected in late summer – early autumn (August-September) or in the second year of life during budding or flowering of the plant.
Habitats. Spreading
Black henbane is common in the European part, in the Caucasus, less often in Central Asia, Siberia, and the Far East.
Black henbane is a ruderal weed. Grows on streets, vacant lots, garbage heaps, near buildings, in yards, near livestock wintering grounds, along ditches, on shallows, pebbles, deposits, pastures, roads; less common in fallow fields, gardens, orchards and fields; in the Crimea grows on the outskirts of vineyards. It does not form thickets, grows scattered or in small groups.
In recent years, due to the improvement of the sanitary condition of settlements and the improvement of agricultural culture, the thickets of black henbane have decreased. In this regard, whiter black is introduced into industrial culture in the Voronezh and Novosibirsk regions.
Procurement and quality of raw materials
When harvesting, rosette leaves of henbane are cut with knives or sickles, stem leaves are torn off by hand. Do not collect leaves affected by powdery mildew, also wet from rain or dew, as they turn brown when dried. The raw materials of henbane are dried in dryers at a temperature of 40 ° C or in attics with good ventilation, spreading out in a thin layer. Drying is considered complete if the petioles of the leaves break when bent.
Henbane is very poisonous, so when collecting and drying it, you will need to be careful not to touch your eyes, lips, nose with your hands. After work, you should thoroughly wash your hands. Raw henbane, like other poisonous plants, should be stored separately from the rest of the raw materials. The finished raw material of henbane consists of glandular-hairy, grayish-green leaves 5-20 cm long and 3-10 cm wide. The smell of the raw material is peculiar, narcotic, weak, aggravated by moisture. Numerical indicators: moisture should be no more than 14%; total ash not more than 20%; ash, insoluble in 10% hydrochloric acid solution, not more than 10%; blackened, brownish and yellowed leaves no more than 3%; other parts of bleached no more than 5%; organic impurities not more than 1%; mineral – no more than 1%; crushed parts passing through a sieve with holes with a diameter of 3 mm, no more than 8%. The content of alkaloids in henbane leaves Should not be less than 0.05%.
The raw material of henbane is packed, compressing it into bales or bales of 50 kg. Stored in a packaged form with precaution (according to list B) in dry, well-ventilated areas, on shelves. The shelf life of raw materials is 2 years.
Chemical composition
All organs of henbane contain atropine alkaloids: hyoscyamine, tropine, 1-scopolamine (hyoscine), apoathropin, apogioscin, belladonin; glycosides juscipicrin, chyuscerin, hyosciresin, methylesculin. Seeds contain up to 14% fatty oil, which includes oleic, linolenic and other acids; The leaves are rich in flavonoids, especially rutin.
Application in medicine
Henbane oil is used as an analgesic for rheumatic and neuralgic pains. Henbane leaves are part of complex products used in the treatment of asthma.
Black henbane is poisonous, so all its products are used only as directed by a doctor.