What are the main effects and uses of Henbane?
Henbane, also known as Langdangzi, Langdangshi, Yatongzi, etc., is the dried mature seed of the Solanaceae plant Hyoscyamus niger (henbane). Used as medicine, it has the effects of relieving spasms, relieving pain, calming asthma, and tranquillizing. It is used to treat mania, wind arthralgia with sudden pain, asthmatic cough, stomach pain, chronic dysentery, rectal prolapse, carbuncle swelling, malignant sores, etc. Let us take a look at the effects and uses of henbane below!
Medicinal Effects of Henbane
[Nature and Flavor] Bitter and pungent in flavor, warm in nature, highly toxic.
[Meridian Tropism] Heart, stomach, and liver meridians.
[Effects] Relieves spasms, relieves pain, calms asthma, and tranquillizes. It mainly treats mania, wind arthralgia with sudden pain, asthmatic cough, stomach pain, chronic dysentery, rectal prolapse, carbuncle swelling, and malignant sores.
[Contraindications] Contraindicated in patients with heart disease, tachycardia, glaucoma, and in pregnant women. It is highly toxic, so oral use should be cautious.
Medicinal Discussions of Henbane
1. "Shennong Bencaojing": Mainly treats toothache with worms and flesh numbness with contracture.
2. "Mingyi Bielu": Treats mania and epilepsy, inversion and contracture.
3. "Yaoxing Lun": Raw henbane can purge people; stir-fried with heat stops cold dysentery; when scorched and ground into fine powder, it treats rectal prolapse of the lower body.
4. "Bencao Shiyi": Mainly treats xuanpi and removes pathogenic factors and expels wind.
5. "Rihuazi Bencao": Burned as smoke for tooth worms; washes genital sweating.
Pharmacological Effects of Henbane
1. Effects on the heart: Scopolamine can relieve the inhibition of the vagus nerve on the heart, allowing sympathetic nerve effects to predominate, thereby increasing heart rate. Atropine has a similar effect and is stronger. Intravenous injection of atropine 2-3 mg/kg or scopolamine 4 mg/kg in rabbits and dogs can antagonize arrhythmias induced by epinephrine or norepinephrine, but cannot antagonize the induced increase in heart rate. Isolated rabbit blood vessel perfusion shows that scopolamine can antagonize contraction caused by epinephrine, but it is weaker than atropine, and it can also counteract the decrease in blood pressure caused by acetylcholine and improve microcirculation.
2. Effects on behavior: Injection of scopolamine into the lateral ventricle of rabbits can cause eye closure, lying on the side, loss of righting reflex, reduced activity, and other phenomena. When combined with hibernation mixture or with pentobarbital-type drugs, it can reduce animal activity, showing a synergistic effect with central inhibitory drugs. However, it has been reported that a small dose of scopolamine can increase spontaneous activity in mice and can counteract the reduced activity caused by reserpine, etc., showing a central excitatory effect.
3. Effects on animal electroencephalogram: Intraperitoneal injection of scopolamine hydrobromide 0.05-0.1 mg/kg in awake cats changed the EEG from low-amplitude fast waves to irregular high-amplitude slow waves, and the animals appeared quiet. When the dose was increased to 0.25-5 mg/kg, the EEG showed highly synchronized and irregular high-amplitude slow waves, and the animals appeared excited and manic. The EEG responses caused by scopolamine in dogs, rabbits, rats, and other animals are also very similar, and it can block arousal reactions caused by various physiological stimuli.
4. Effects on conditioned reflexes: Scopolamine can block avoidance conditioned reflexes and secondary conditioned reflexes in rats to varying degrees, and the blocking rate is parallel to the dose; atropine has a weaker effect. Atropine inhibits glandular secretion and has a obvious relaxing effect on smooth muscle in a hyperactive or spasmodic state.
Medicinal Selected Formulas of Henbane
1. To treat the five types of epilepsy, with turning from side to side, bleating like a sheep, eyes rolling upward, foaming at the mouth, and not knowing where the pain is: one pig ovum (dried in the shade for 100 days), henbane seeds 3 sheng, cow bezoar 8 fen (ground), carp gall 5 fen, cinnamon heart 10 fen (ground). For the above five ingredients, cut them, soak the henbane seeds in 1 sheng of clear wine, sun-dry until dry, stop when the wine is used up, then pound and sift. Take 5 fen-spoonfuls with wine, twice a day; one should feel as if drunk; if not, gradually increase, with awareness as the standard. Avoid raw scallions, etc.
2. To treat wind arthralgia with sudden pain: henbane 15 grams (stir-fried), large Aconitum kusnezoffii and licorice 25 grams, trogopterus dung 50 grams. Grind into powder, make into a paste pill the size of a Chinese parasol seed, coated with spiral blue. Take 10 pills each time; for men, take with acorus wine; for women, take with yuanhua decoction.
3. To treat accumulated cold xuanpi, no desire for food, and fatigue of the four limbs: henbane seeds 1.5 grams (washed in water to remove the floating ones), jujubes 49 pieces. For the above medicine, combine with 3 sheng of water, boil until the water is gone, then take the jujubes, remove the skin and pits. Eat one before each meal; it may also be taken with congee; stop when heat is felt.
4. To treat chronic wheezing cough: henbane seeds, costus root, and sulphur in equal parts. Grind into powder, spread mutton fat on blue paper, sprinkle the powder on it, roll into a tube, burn and inhale the smoke.
5. To treat prolonged watery diarrhea: 10 Qingzhou dried jujubes, remove the pits, fill with henbane seeds, tie firmly, and burn until charcoal-like while preserving its nature. Take 5 grams each time with millet congee.
6. To treat red and white dysentery, umbilical and abdominal pain, and slippery intestines with tenesmus: rhubarb 25 grams, henbane seeds 50 grams. Pound and sift into powder; take 5 grams each time, mixed with rice drink, before meals.
7. To treat stone-like carbuncle hard as stone that does not form pus: mix henbane seed powder with vinegar and apply to the affected area.
8. To treat malignant sores resembling leprosy: burn henbane seeds, grind into powder, and apply.
9. To treat injury from beating with abdominal blood stasis: apply henbane seed powder to the wound.
10. To treat mad dog poison: take 7 henbane seeds, once a day.