Symphytum officinale

Scientific Name Symphytum officinale

Common Name Quaker comfrey, Cultivated comfrey, Boneset, Knitbone

Botanical Family Boraginaceae

In S2E3 (31:59), Joan Clayton quizzes Vanessa on Comfrey, who says that the plant is used as protection for travelers when blanched, crushed, and hidden in the left pocket.

While there are several internet pages that reference the ability of Comfrey to protect travelers, I cannot find the folklore source from which this belief came. However, Comfrey has been used in folk medicine as a poultice for treating burns and wounds. However, internal consumption, such as in the form of herbal tea, is discouraged, as it has been highly debated about whether it can cause serious liver damage.

References

Oberlies, Nicholas H; Kim, Nam-Cheol; Brine, Dolores R; Collins, Bradley J; Handy, Robert W; Sparacino, Charles M; Wani, Mansukh C; Wall, Monroe E (2007). “Analysis of herbal teas made from the leaves of comfrey (Symphytum officinale): Reduction of N-oxides results in order of magnitude increases in the measurable concentration of pyrrolizidine alkaloids”. Public Health Nutrition 7 (7): 919–24. doi:10.1079/phn2004624

 

Paphiopedilum rothschildianum–Rothschild’s Slipper

Scientific Name Paphiopedilum rothschildianum

Common Name Rothschild’s Slipper, Gold of Kinabalu Orchid

Botanical Family Name Orchidaceae

In S1E5, Dorian Gray shows Vanessa the Rothschild’s Slipper flower within the botanical garden greenhouse. Mr. Gray tells Vanessa that the plant takes 15 years to bloom. When Vanessa asks if it is poisonousness, Mr. Gray responds, “Like all beautiful things, I hope so”.

Paphiopedilum rothschildianum occurs only on Mt. Kinabalu on the island of Borneo. It was collected and introduced into cultivation in Europe and Britain in 1887. It can bloom up to 6 flowers at a time. Unfortunately for Mr. Gray, I cannot find any information indicating that the plant is poisonousness.

Due to the plant being a relatively new discovery, and still very mysterious, there is not much commonly known folklore surrounding it.

 

 

 

 

Atropa belladonna–Deadly Nightshade

Scientific Name Atropa belladonna

Common Name Belladonna, Deadly Nightshade

Botanical Family Solanaceae

A. belladonna is the plant that Dorian Gray had Vanessa smell and describe in S1E4 as they walk through a botanical garden greenhouse. The genus name comes from Atropos, who was 1 of the 3 goddesses of fate or destiny in Greek mythology. Atropos was the oldest of the 3 goddesses, and known for her inflexibility and her inevitability. The name bella donna comes from the Italian for “pretty woman” or “beautiful lady”, because the herb was used to dilate the pupils of women’s eyes for cosmetic purposes, something that Madame Kali mentions in season 2. The plant is a herbaceous perennial, native to Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia.

It is one of the most toxic plants found in the Eastern Hemisphere, as it has tropane alkaloids in all parts of the plant. The symptoms of belladonna poisoning include dilated pupils, sensitivity to light, blurred vision, tachycardia, loss of balance, staggering, headache, rash, flushing, severely dry mouth and throat, slurred speech, urinary retention, constipation, confusion, hallucinations, delirium, and convulsions.

The plant was used at one time for cosmetic purposes, but due to its toxicity, it is no longer commonly used for that purpose. Putting  A. belladonna in the eyes to dilate the pupils, would over time, lead to blindness, and possibly, death. Medicinally, A. belladonna has been used for centuries as a pain reliever, muscle relaxer, and inflammatory mediation, among many other common ailments. There is at least one surviving example of the prepration of A. belladonna to use on a patient, from a 19th century eclectic medicine journal.

“Take of recently dried Belladonna leaves, four ounces; Diluted Alcohol, two pints. Macerate for fourteen days, express, and filter through paper…Dose, ten to thirty drops.” From Officinal Preparations by Joseph R. Buchanan and R.S. Newton (1854).

The above description is on how to make a Belladonna tincture, which is typically an alcoholic extract of plant or animal material. The tincture would be prepared and then drank.

Atropa belladonna and related plants, such as jimson weed have been occasionally used as recreational drugs because of the vivid hallucinations and delirium they produce. However, the hallucinations are often considered to be highly unpleasant, and the use extremely dangerous, because it is easy to overdose.

Folklore

Within folklore, Belladonna is associated with witches, who would supposedly mix the plant with other toxic and poisonous plants and apply the mixture to themselves, to make a flying ointment, which would enable them to fly their gatherings. These flying ointments were typically made out of hallucinogenic plants and herbs. Apparently, the practice of making flying ointment was documented by Alice Kyteler, the first recorded person condemned for witchcraft in Ireland in 1324.

“In rifleing the closet of the ladie, they found a Pipe of oyntment, wherewith she greased a staffe, upon wich she ambled and galloped through thick and thin, when and in what manner she listed” From Stairways to Heaven: Drugs in American Religious History by Robert C. Fuller.

Sometimes the Belladonna was combined with opium poppy to create this flying ointment, and some scholars have argued that the true use of this ointment was to create a dream-like waking state. The combination of opium poppy and Belladonna would have created this state, because of the antagonism between tropane alkaloids and opiate alkaloids.

References

Cummins BM, Obetz SW, Wilson MR (June 1968). “Belladonna poisoning as a facet of pschyodelia”. JAMA204 (11): 1011. doi:10.1001/jama.204.11.1011.PMID 5694682

“Belladonna.—Belladonna”. Henrietta’s Herbal. Retrieved 2008-07-08.

Joseph R. Buchanan, R.S. Newton (1854). Wm. Phillips and co., ed. “Officinal preparations”. The Eclectic Medical Journal (Wm. Phillips and co.)

Kuklin, Alexander (February 1999). How Do Witches Fly?. DNA Press.

 

 

 

Stachys officinalis–Wood Betony

Scientific Name Stachys officinalis

Common Name Wood Betony, Purple Betony, Bishopwart

Botanical Family Lamiaceae

In S2E7 (11:48), as Vanessa and Ethan are walking along the moor and collecting berries and plants, Vanessa points out Wood Betony, telling Ethan that it attracts bees for honey, and when crushed and put into your pillow, it prevents nightmares.

The idea that S. officinalis can cure bad dreams and nightmares actually comes from an Anglo Saxon Herbal (a “herbal” is a collection of plant descriptions put together for medicinal purposes, much like Dioscorides’s De Materia Medica). A Welsh tradition tells us to use S. offincialis to prevent bad dreams by hanging the leaves around your neck, or drinking the juice of the flower before going to bed. The flower is a perennial grassland herb, and in the British Isles, it is common in England and Wales, but rare in Ireland and Northern Scotland.

Supposedly, the first reference to the plant was made by Antonius Musa, a Roman physician, who believed that S. officinalis was effective against sorcery.

References

Bonser Wilfrid, “Magical Practices against Elves” Folklore, Vol. 37, No. 4 (Dec. 31, 1926), pp. 350-363.

United States Natural Resources and Conservation Service

 

 

 

 

Solanum nigrum–European Black Nightshade

Scientific Name Solanum nigrum

Common Name European Black Nightshade, Garden Nightshade, Hound’s Berry

Botanical Family Solanaceae

Joan Clayton points out Solanum nigrum and tells Vanessa to remember it (S2E3, 15:29). It is yet another Nightshade mentioned in the show, and is native to Eurasia, but has been introduced in the Americas, Australia, and South Africa. It is a common herb, or short-lived perennial shrub found in many wooded areas. Sometimes the flower of S. nigrum can be confused with Atropa belladonna, or the deadly nightshade. The photo on the left is S. nigrum while the photo on the right is Atropa belladonna. When Vanessa walks the botanical gardens with Dorian Gray, he shows her an Atropa belladonna plant, which Vanessa is shocked to hear is very poisonous. She was most likely feigning ignorance about the flower around Mr. Gray, for she surely learned all about the Nightshade family from Joan Clayton.

 

Despite some forms and parts of the plant being toxic, the berries of S. nigrum have been eaten and used in the culinary arts for several hundred years. The fruit was recorded as a famine food in 15th century China. The ripe black berries are described as sweet and salty, with hints of liquorice and melon. Many different cultures all around the world prepare and eat the berries of the plant.

The plant also has a long history of medicinal usage, dating back to ancient Greece, where is was used to help cure dropsy, or edema. It is a traditional European medicine, mainly used as a strong narcotic and sedative. It is also an important medicinal flower in Indian medicine, as infusions were used to treat dysentery, stomach complaints, and fever. Like with Mandragora, Dioscorides recorded uses S. nigrum as well, including headache, heartburn, skin inflammation, venereal disease, and “womanish flux”.

References

Defelice, Michael S. (2003). “The Black Nightshades, Solanum nigrum L. et al.–Poison, Poultice, and Pie”. In Intriguing World of Weeds, Vol. 17. pp. 421-427.

Solanium Nigrum Factsheet

 

 

 

Mandragora

Scientific Name Mandragora officinarum

Common Name Devil’s Apple, Love Apple, European Mandrake

Botanical Family Solanaceae

In S2E3 (15:29), one of the plants that Joan Clayton teaches Vanessa about is the genus Mandragora, which belongs to the family Solanaceae, or the Nightshade family. Joan Clayton tells Vanessa that the genus, when used in the proper dosage, can be used to expel a stillborn baby from the mother’s body, and to bring sleeping terrors. The members of the genus are known as Mandrakes, and there are only about 3 to 5 species within the entire genus. The plants are perennial and herbaceous. The Nightshade family is known for their highly biologically active alkaloids, which make them poisonous, with a variety of symptoms and effects.  Mandragora has highly active tropane alkaloids in particular, with the roots having the highest concentration of the alkaloid. The most common legend associated with the plant is that of its shrieking roots.

The symptoms of mandrake poisoning are much like those of nerve agents and pesticides. The symptoms include blurred vision, dilation of the pupils, dryness of the mouth, difficulty urinating, dizziness, headache, vomiting, blushing and rapid heart rate. Hyperactivity and hallucinations are also common in afflicted patients.

The toxic, mind-altering properties of Nightshade alkaloids have been known since ancient times, and was used both for medicine and fertility. Remains of mandrake were found in the casket of King Tutankhamen, and references to the plant appear in Homer’s Odyssey. Romans prominently used mandrake as an anesthetic, and Dioscorides, the Greek herbalist and surgeon to Nero’s armies, also recommended the use of Mandrake as an anesthetic during the 1st century A.D. The Romans also used a sponge dipped in mandrake wine, called spongia somifera for administration to Crucifixion victims, which would induce a stupor-like state. The use of the plant as an aphrodisiac and fertility drug continued through medieval times and the Renaissance. In the Bible’s Book of Genesis, mandrake root helps Rachel conceive Jacob, and in Greek mythology, Circe and Aphrodite are thought to use it as an aphrodisiac.

The photo below shows Dioscorides manuscript, where he describes the “male” and “female” mandrakes plants, although he is really describing 2 different species, Mandragora officinarum and Mandragora autumnalis.

 

From the seventh-century manuscript of Dioscurides’ De Materia Medica (Photo: Publicdomain/wikicommons

Over the centuries, legends surrounding the mandrake’s different sexes and human shape grew stronger, reinforced by the medieval doctrine of signatures, which claimed that plants that resembled certain body parts could be used to treat ailments of those body parts. As a plant with the shape of a human body, the mandrake was believed to exercise control over the body: it could induce love or conception, or bring good fortune, wealth and power. A mandrake root, shaped like a baby and slipped underneath one’s pillow every night, could help a woman conceive; or, shaped like a woman and carried in one’s pocket, could help a man secure his desired lover. Across Europe, men and women desperately sought out mandrake root to resolve their woes, and fraudsters counterfeited them out of carved bryony root to satisfy the growing demand.

References

The History and Uses of the Magical Mandrake, According to Modern Witches

Medical Toxicology of Natural Substances: Food, Fungi, Medicinal Herbs, Plants, and Venomous Animals

Carter, Anthony John (2003). “Myths and Mandrakes” (PDF). In the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, Vol. 96. pp. 144-147.

Jackson, Betty P. & Berry, Michael I. (1979). “39. Mandragora – taxonomy and chemistry of the European species” (PDF). In Hawkes, J.G.; Lester, R.N. & Skelding, A.D. The biology and taxonomy of the Solanaceae. London: Academic Press. pp. 505–512.