Product Code Database
Physochlaina is a small genus of herbaceous perennial belonging to the nightshade family, Solanaceae,Armando T. Hunziker: The Genera of Solanaceae. A.R.G. Gantner Verlag K.G., Ruggell, Liechtenstein 2001. . found principally in the north-western provinces of China (and regions adjoining these in the Himalaya and Central Asia)An-ming, Lu and Zhi-yu, Zhang Studies of the Subtribe Hyoscyaminae in China, paper no. 5 in Solanaceae : Biology and Systematics, Ed. William G. D'Arcy, pub. Columbia University Press 1986.Polunin, Oleg and Stainton, Adam, Flowers of the Himalaya, pub. Oxford University Press 1984, pps. 288-9. although one species occurs in Western Asia, while others occur in Siberia, Mongolia and the Chinese autonomous region of
Retrieved 11.28 a.m. on Tues 7/4/20 maintain that the widespread species P. physaloides is found also in Japan, but the species is not recorded as being native in one of the few English-language floras of the country.Ohwi, Jisaburo, National Science Museum, Tokyo, Japan, Flora of Japan (in English)
Retrieved 11.37 a.m. on Tue 7/4/20 The genus has medicinal value, being rich in tropane alkaloids, and is also of Ornamental plant value, three species having been grown for ornament, although hitherto infrequently outside . Furthermore, the genus contains a species ( P. physaloides – recorded in older literature under the synonyms Hyoscyamus physalodes, Hyoscyamus physaloides and Scopolia physaloides) formerly used as an entheogen in Siberia (re. which see translation of Gmelin's account of such use below).Rätsch, Christian, The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants: Ethnopharmacology and Its Applications pub. Park Street Press 2005
Robert Sweet coined the English name Oriental Henbane for P. orientalis in his work The British Flower Garden in 1823, but this is simply a translation of the ( now obsolete ) name Hyoscyamus orientalis. He further coins the name Purple-flowered Henbane for the Siberian species P. physaloides, but this adds to the confusion, as, not only is the species in question no longer classified as a Henbane ( i.e. Hyoscyamus ), but there are also a number of ( true ) Hyoscyamus spp. which bear purple flowers – e.g. Hyoscyamus muticus.
There is, however, a common name (age unknown) for Physochlaina in Russian, namely Пузырница ( Puzeernitsa) – 'Pig bladder / bubble plant', qualified Пузырница Физалисовая ( Puzeernitsa Phizalisovaya) – Physalis-like Bladder plant in the case of P. physaloides .YouTube.com Physochlaina videos produced by Вокруг Света (Vokrug Sveta) TV and Дмитрий Сутуԓа (Dmitriy Sutula). The Swedish language common name for the genus – Vårbolmört – translates as 'Spring(-flowering) Henbane',Glosbe online Swedish dictionary. while the Finnish language common name Kievarinyrtti means 'Inn Herb'Google translate: Finnish to English. and the Estonian common name is Ida-vullrohu, meaning 'Eastern Henbane'.Facebook page for Tartu Üllikooli botaanikaaed (= University of Tartu Botanical Gardens )
In Turkey, where the species Physochlaina orientalis is native to the region abutting the easternmost stretch of Turkey's Black Sea coast, the common name given to the plant is Taş Banotu, meaning Stone Henbane i.e. "the henbane that grows on/out of, stone" in reference to the plant'
Retrieved at 1.30am on 12/2/20http://www.bizimcicekler.org.tr/gallery.php?taxonID=12831 Retrieved at 2.10am on 12/2/20 The late Professor Turhan Baytop lists the Turkish common name Yalancı Banotu (= "False Henbane") for the plant in his 1963 work on the medicinal and poisonous plants of Turkey. He does not, however, record any information concerning any medicinal properties attributed to Physochlaina orientalis or folk medicinal uses of it made in Turkey. While Baytop includes a brief mention of the plant in the section "List of the Medicinal and Poisonous Plants of Turkey" under the family heading "Solanaceae", he does not include it in the section which constitutes the bulk of his work - namely "Principal Medicinal Plants of Turkey" - this in marked contrast to his substantial treatment of the related genus Hyoscyamus.
The list entry for P. orientalis reads simply " * Physoclaina sic. orientalis (M.B.) G.Don. - Yalancı Banotu: Gümüşhane" - the initial asterisk here indicating a plant not only medicinal but actively poisonous, and "Gümüşhane" the province of Turkey in which the plant is to be found.Baytop, Turhan (Professor of Pharmacognosy at the Faculty of Pharmacy of Istanbul University) Türkiyenin Tibbi ve Zehirli Bitkileri (Translation: "The Medicinal and Poisonous Plants of Turkey") Istanbul University Publications, No.: 1039, Faculty of Medicine, No.: 59, İsmail Akgün Press, 1963.
In the ancient, Iranian language Ossetian, spoken both to the North and the South of the Greater Caucasus range, plants of the genus Physochlaina have the common name Тыппыргæрдæг – approximate pronunciation Typpyrgərdəg ( where schwa stands for the unique Ossetian vowel for which the special letter 'æ' had to be created in the Cyrillic alphabet ).Техов Ф.Д. (Tekhov, F.D.)Названия растений в осетинском языке. Издательство «Ирыстон», Цхинвали (Tskhinvali).Дзабиты 3арбег. (Dzabit, Zarbeg) Ирон адæмон хостæ. — Дзæуджыхъæу: Ир, 1995 — 201 ф. (See also page Physochlaina in Wikipedia, language: Ирон).
The name Тыппыргæрдæг is composed of the Ossetian elements тыппыр ( typpyr ) 'swollen' / 'puffed up' and кæрдаг / гæрдаг ( (approx.) kerdag / gerdag ) 'grass' / 'herb' (and also - confusingly - 'fungus' / 'mushroom'
Retrieved at 11.52 on Tuesday 8/10/24 thus yielding an English translation of bladder-grass ( cf. Ossetian таппуз ( tappuz) 'bladder' / 'bubble' ). This Ossetian common name for the plant is thus very similar in meaning to the Russian Puzeernitsa, but it is not clear whether it arose independently or is simply a translation of the Russian name for the plant. This said, Vasily Abaev lists a second meaning (prevalent particularly in the Digor dialect) of the Ossetian word typpyr, namely 'kurgan' (burial mound), in which the primary sense of 'swelling' is applied specifically to a swelling in the landscape i.e. a tumulus or small artificial hill. It is thus possible that the compound Typpyrgerdeg is translateable as grave-grass i.e. a herb associated in some way with grave mounds. Such a meaning for this compound would be compatible with a native Ossetian provenance - not unlikely in regard to the name of a plant native to the Caucasus (see below re. P. orientalis).Абаев, В.И. Историко-Етимологический Словарь Осетинского Языка (Abaev, V.I. Historico-Etymological Dictionary of the Ossetian Language
recovered at 21.07 on 30/10/19
There are likewise several common names for the Himalayan Physochlaina praealta in the various languages of Nepal, and common names for the genus Physochlaina and the various Physochlaina species of Eastern Asiatic provenance in Standard Chinese (泡囊草属 pao nang ts'ao shu), Standard Tibetan ( khyn khors), Kazakh language (үрмежеміс = (approximately) urmezhemis), Uzbek language ( xiyoli), Uyghur language, Mongolian ( garag chig tav) and certain Tungusic languages.Quattrocchi, Umberto (2012). CRC World dictionary of medicinal and poisonous plants: common names, scientific names, eponyms, synonyms and etymology. IV, M-Q. CRC Press Taylor and Francis Group. p.
Retrieved 20/6/17 at 12.22 pm It has also been reported as native to Primorskiy Krai.Фитоаптека (Fitoapteka) http://fitoapteka.org/herbs-p/4103-101032-physochlaina-infundibuaris
Retrieved April 26, 2017
'The species of Physochlaina are extremely desirable plants; being early flowerers, and elegant when in blossom. They will grow in any soil, and are readily propagated by divisions of the root, or by seed. They are well adapted for decorating borders in early spring'.
In regard to the soil type favoured by wild populations, volume 22 of Linnaea (in surprisingly geological vein) provides the observation that Physochlaina orientalis is to be found growing on soils underlain by ( of a type notably rich in the chemical element potassium, a plant macronutrient essential for the production of flowers and fruit and, in a specifically Solanaceous context, the main ingredient of liquid feed for tomato plants).
As with Panax, it is the fleshy root of Physochlaina infundibularis that forms the drug : the fresh, raw roots are first peeled and then boiled in a sugar solution containing small quantities of three other herbal drugs, before being dried, ready for storage and use. The three drugs added to the boiling solution are the root of Glycyrrhiza uralensis, the rhizome of Ophiopogon japonicus and the fruits of Gardenia jasminoides. This peeling, boiling and addition of 'cooling', 'yin' drugs is undertaken to mitigate the 'heat' / toxicity of the Physochlaina infundibularis roots.
In addition to its use as an adaptogen, P. infundibularis is used (in traditional Chinese medicine) in the treatment of asthma, chronic bronchitis, abdominal pain, palpitations and insomnia and as a sedative. The drug is also used to treat diarrhea of the kind considered in traditional Chinese medicine to be 'diarrhea due to deficiency of vital energy with symptoms of cold'.Peigen, Xiao and Liyi, He Ethnopharmacologic investigation on tropane-containing drugs in Chinese Solanaceous plants in Journal of Ethnopharmacology Volume 8 No. 1 July (1983) pub. Elsevier.
The nomenclatural association of P. infundibularis with Mount Hua – 'West Great Mountain' of the Five Great Mountains of China of Taoism – is an interesting one and merits further study : in common with other mountains regarded in China as numinous/Xian ling, Mount Hua (a precipitous assemblage of five (counted anciently only as three) peaks in the Qin Mountains) is held to be a source of rare medicinal plants and life-prolonging elixirs. Furthermore, at the foot of the West Peak of Mount Hua (known as Lianhua Feng (蓮花峰) or Furong Feng (芙蓉峰), both meaning Lotus Flower Summit) stood, from as early as the second century BCE, a Taoist temple which was the site of Shamanism practices undertaken by spirit mediums (see also Wu (shaman)) to contact an (unnamed) God of the Diyu and his minions, believed to dwell in the heart of the mountain.(See also Chinese folk religion).Goossaert, Vincent. "Huashan." in Fabrizio Pregadio, ed., The Encyclopedia of Taoism (London: Routledge, 2008), 481–482. Tropane-containing, Solanaceous plants (such as Datura and Hyoscyamus spp.) have a long history of use as entheogens in shamanic practicesHarner, Michael J., Hallucinogens and Shamanism, pub. Oxford University Press 1973, reprinted U.S.A.1978 Chapter 8 : pps. 125–150. – including Taoist practicesSchultes, Richard Evans and Hofmann, Albert The Botany and Chemistry of Hallucinogens – revised and enlarged second edition, pub. Charles C. Thomas 1980 pps. 288 and 337.- and indeed Physochlaina physaloides is known definitely to have been used as an entheogen by certain Tungus tribes ( see section below ), so the possible use of its sister species P. infundibularis in Taoist, shamanic practices at Mount Hua might prove a topic worthy of consideration.
In addition to its being considered a kind of ginseng in its own right, the root of Physochlaina infundibularis ('Physochlainae Radix') is sometimes passed off in the ginseng trade as a substitute for the more costly roots of the true ginsengs Panax ginseng and Panax quinquefolius – a dangerous practice which could lead to the (potentially fatal), anticholinergic poisoning of unwitting users of these famous tonics, although the substitution tends to be a feature of local, Chinese (rather than international) trade.Leon, Christine and Yu-Lin, Lin, Chinese Medicinal Plants, Herbal Drugs and Substitutes : an identification guide, Kew Publishing, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 2017 pps. 240 and 312.
Note: The Russian name for the plant is given as Пузырница воронковидная ( Puzeernitsa Voronkovidnaya) i.e. "funnel-shaped bladder plant" / "the bladder-bearing plant with funnel-shaped flowers", which, like the Chinese lou dou pao nang cao is simply a translation of the scientific name for the plant. The plant illustrated in the image on the website page resembles Physochlaina physaloides but the description provided pertains to P. infundibularis.]
A recent chemical analysis of the plant revealed the presence of the following compounds: in the above-ground parts, the neoisorutin, glucoepirutin, rutin, quercetin- 3-O-β-D-glucofuranosyl-(6→I)-α-L-rhamnopyranoside-7-α-L-rhamnopyranoside and the alkaloids hyoscyamine, scopolamine and 6-hydroxyatropine; while the underground organs yielded the flavonoids liquiritigenin, guaiaverine, coumarin, scopolin, fabriatrin, scopoletin, umbelliferone, and also β-sitosterol, 3-O-β-D-glucopyranoside-β-sitosterol and the alkaloids atropine, scopolamine and cuscohygrine. Medicinal Plants in Mongolia pub. World Health Organization, Regional Office for the Western Pacific Region 2013 [1] retrieved at 13.01 on 2/11/19.Daandai, G., (1992) The chemical and technological investigation of root of Physochlaina physaloides, a thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry. Ulaanbaatar: Mongolian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Chemistry.
Corroboration of the possession of antiseptic properties by Physochlaina praealta was provided recently by the publication (in 2019) of a paper entitled (most unhelpfully in this context) Isolation of Anemonin from Pulsatilla wallichiana and its Biological Activities. In a manner not so much as hinted at by its title, this paper discusses not only the effects of aqueous extracts of the eponymous Pulsatilla species but also of methanol extracts of Physochlaina praealta on various pathogens and medical conditions.Iftikhar Ali, Sakeena Khatoon, Faiza Amber, Qamar Abbas, Muhammad Ismail, Nadja Engel, and Viqar Uddin Ahmad Isolation of Anemonin from Pulsatilla wallichiana and its Biological Activities J. Chem. Soc. Pak., Vol. 41, No. 02, 2019 pps. 325-333.
In their prefatory remarks, Iftikhar et al. note that, in Baltistan, the plant, known locally as Luntung, is known to be poisonous and to have medicinal properties beneficial to both animals and humans, its leaves being used as antiseptic bedding material in cattle S. W. Khan, Q. Abbas, S. N. Hassan, H. Khan and A. Hussain, Medicinal Plants of Tormik Valley (Central Karakoram National Park), Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan, J. Bioresour. Manage., 2, 81 (2015). and its seeds and flowers being used to treat toothacheC. P. Kala, Medicinal plants of the high altitude cold desert in India: Diversity, distribution and traditional uses, Int. J. Biodiv. Sci. Manage., 2, 43 (2006).
The methanolic extract of P. praealta was studied for the following biological activities: antibacterial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, cytotoxic, phytotoxic, brine shrimp lethality and Insecticide properties.
The results of the tests for antibacterial activity revealed that the extract exhibited the highest percentage inhibition against Staphylococcus aureus (68.54%), followed by Escherichia coli (10.04%), Bacillus subtilis (06.96%) and Salmonella typhi (01.04%) while it remained inactive against Shigella flexneri and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
In tests for antifungal activity the extract proved inactive against the species Candida albicans, Trichophyton rubrum, Aspergillus niger, Microsporum canis and Fusarium lini.
In the test for anti-inflammatory activity the extract exhibited 17.6% inhibition at a concentration 25 mg/mL, Ibuprofen being used as a standard drug for comparison and showing 73.2% inhibition at the same concentration.
In the first test for anticancer activity doxorubicin was used as the standard drug of comparison against HeLa, showing 73% inhibition at 30 μg/mL concentration. At the same concentration, the extract exhibited 30% inhibition and was deemed inactive against HeLa cell lines by comparison.
The second test involved testing for anticancer activity on highly Metastasis - for which the alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma cell line Rh30 was chosen. After treatment with 50 μg/mL, far from a hoped-for decrease in cell viability, the P. praealta methanolic extract actually slightly increased the cell viability up to 10%.
In the cytotoxicity test, the extract exhibited 22% inhibition, and was considered nontoxic against 3T3 cell lines at the concentration 30 μg/mL, while the standard drug 'cycroamide' typo used for purposes of comparison, showed a 70% inhibition against 3T3 cell lines when applied at a similar concentration.
In the phytotoxicity test, the Lemnoideae Lemna minor was used as the test species and the herbicide paraquat mis-spelled was used for purposes of comparison. The activity was determined at concentrations of 10, 100 and 1000 μg/mL. The P. praealta extract showed moderate phytotoxic activity at the highest concentrations.
In the brine shrimp lethality test, the P. praealta extract failed to show any significant activity.
Iftikhar notes helpfully the existence of three previous papers devoted to the investigation of the chemistry and biology of Physochlaina praealta K. Handa, B. Nazir, I. Chopra and K. Jamwal, Chemical investigation of Physochlaina praealta Miers, J. Sci. Ind. Res., 1OB, 182 (1952).V. A. Peshkova, On Biological and Dynamic Characteristics of the Concentration of Alkaloids in Physochlaina physaloides (L.) G. Don, Farm. Zh., 19, 23 (1964).
In the traditional system of classification of herbal drugs in Mongolian folk medicine, the plant is described as "bitter in taste with a cool, oily potency". It is used currently as an "antibacterial", an analgesic, an anticonvulsant, an antipyretic, an anti-parasitic, against anthrax, against encephalitis, against glanders, against of the skin and the gastrointestinal tract against tumors and to treat Sexual desire, aspermia, abdominal pain and hypothermia. On the negative side, it is said to be "ulcerogenic" i.e. to have the potential to cause of unspecified type Note:.Boldsaikhan, B., (2004) Encyclopedia of Mongolian Medicinal Plants, pub. Mongolian University of Science and Technology, Ulaanbaatar, (page 51).Ligaa, U., Davaasuren, B. and Ninjil, N., (2005), Medicinal Plants of Mongolia Used in Western and Eastern Medicine, pub. JCK printing, Ulaanbaatar, page 464.
...we came to Bessanova or Pyanovskaya D. which lies on the left bank of the river, and, two down, to another falls – Pyanoy Porog ...They were christened The Drunken Rapids by the first Yeniseian Cossacks to travel up from Yeniseisk on the stream and pass through them.His curiosity aroused, Gmelin investigated, and discovered an attractive new species:
They found in the vicinity of these rapids a herb, which they took, from the appearance of its leaves and flowers, to be Lungwort [Russian: Медуница: Medunitsa] and so used the leaves in the preparation of a [[vegetable soup|Shchi]] and the roots to make a purée and, partaking of these dishes, grew so utterly intoxicated that they knew not what they were doing. When they had returned to their senses, they named these falls The Drunken Rapids and, because one suffers a [[headache]] after such a [[debauch|Binge drinking]], they named the falls that they encountered next Pokhmelnoy Porog [ Russian: Похмельной Порог: The [[Hungover|Hangover]] Rapids ].
This account has given me the opportunity to reveal the identity of the beautiful plant involved, which was unknown to any botanist before me: Hyoscyamus foliis integerrimis calicibus inflatis subglobosis Botanical] Linn. h. Ups. 44. 2.Having identified the ( Linnaean ) genus Hyoscyamus to which the intoxicating plant of The Drunken Rapids ( since moved by Don to the genus Physochlaina ) belonged, Gmelin went on to quiz his local guides and learned the following concerning its intentional consumption:
If one steeps the leaves or even the finely-chopped roots of this plant in brewed beer – or, better yet, in beer that is still undergoing fermentation – then it takes but a single glass of such beer to make a man exceedingly foolish: it is surely a strange draught that he quaffs, for he is robbed of all his senses, or at least finds his senses grossly disordered, Macropsia: a straw for the thickest of beams, a drop of water for a mighty ocean and a mouse for an elephant. Wherever he goes he encounters insurmountable obstacles. He pictures continually to himself the cruellest and most dreadful imaginings of an inevitable death awaiting him, and, as it seems, all this fills him with despair, because his senses are withering away; thus, should one such drunkard go to step over a beam, he will take a great stride out of all proportion to the actual size of it, while another will see deep water in front of him such that he dare not venture into it.In conclusion, Gmelin then adds, concerning the plant itself:
The local inhabitants often use these roots when they want to play a practical joke upon each other. The Russian merchants often bring these roots back with them when they return to Russia, because they maintain them to be a sovereign remedy for bleeding haemorrhoids and also against the haematuria – a claim which I have been unable to verify.Johann Georg Gmelin, Reise durch Sibirien von dem Jahre 1738 bis zum ende 1740, Bd. 3 & 4, Vandenhoeck, Göttingen, 1752.
Gmelin's Reise durch Sibirien – with its evocative account of his findings concerning the plant now known to science as Physochlaina physaloides – received a translation into French which was published as part of Volume 18 of Abbé Prévost's monumental Histoire générale des voyages – a compendium of eighteenth century exploration by land and sea, continued beyond the original fifteen volumes, by other authors following the death of Prévost in 1763. The Histoire translation is by no means always a word-for-word rendering of Gmelin's original text, and, in the passage concerning Physochlaina, a sentence entirely absent from the Gmelin account has been added, which nonetheless has been retained in subsequent retellings of the passage in question:
Il parle continuellement sans savoir ce qu'il dit. Translation:. Continuation de l'Histoire Générale des Voyages ou Collection Nouvelle 1o des Relations de Voyages par Mer: decouvertes, observations, descriptions, omises dans celle de Seu M. l'Abbé Prévost, ou publiées depuis cet Ouvrage. 2o des Voyages par Terre, faits dans Toutes les Parties du Monde. Vol. 18 – being the first volume of said continuation – pub. Rozet, Paris 1748. Page 338, under heading in margin 'Plante qui enivre' =.
The first work devoted exclusively to recreational drugs to draw on Prévost's translation of Gmelin's account of Evenki Physochlaina use was A History of Tobacco with notes on the use of all Excitants currently known by Italian botanist Professor Orazio Comes, written in French and published in Naples in 1900.Orazio Comes Histoire, Géographie, Statistique du Tabac: son introduction et son expansion dans tous les pays depuis son origine jusqu'à la fin du XIX.me siècle avec des notes sur l'usage de tous les excitants connus: Hachich, Opium, Bétel, Café, Thé etc. pub. Naples, Typographie Coopérative Largo dei Bianchi allo Spirito Santo 1 a 4 1900. Page 282 note 12.
Comes's summary of the Prévost translation was included by German Botanist Carl Hartwich in his classic and influential work of 1911 Die Menschlichen Genussmittel (= 'The Pleasure-drugs of Mankind'),Carl Hartwich Die Menschlichen Genussmittel, ihre herkunft, verbreitung, geschichte, anwendung, bestandteile und wirkung ( Translation: The Pleasure-drugs of Mankind – their origins, spread, history, application, ingredients and effects ), pub. Leipzig 1911 Chr. Herm. Tauchnitz. Page 522 under heading 3: 'Daß Hyoscyamus'. which, in turn, was quoted by 21st century expert on hallucinogens Dr. Christian Rätsch in his Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants of 2005. Hartwich speaks only of 'Hyoscyamus' with no indication of the species involved and, while Rätsch uses the correct species name physaloides he still includes the plant in his discussion of the various Hyoscyamus species – seemingly unaware that the plant was actually made the type species of the new genus Physochlaina by George Don as far back as the year 1838.
...persons thus intoxicated by have hallucinations, as if in a fever; they are subject to various visions, terrifying or felicitous, depending on differences in temperament, owing to which some jump, some dance, others cry and suffer great terrors, while some might deem a small crack to be as wide as a door, and a tub of water as deep as the sea.Krasheninnikov, Stepan Описание земли Камчатки ( Opisanie Zemli Kamchatki - Description of the Land of Kamchatka), pub. St. Petersburg 1755. English translation of relevant passage by Gordon Wasson in Soma, Divine Mushroom of Immortality pub. Harvest/Harcourt Brace Jovanovich - from an edition of 1949 edited under the auspices of the Soviet Academy of Sciences.
To the above may readily be compared Gmelin's mistaking a drop of water for a mighty ocean and He pictures continually to himself the cruellest and most dreadful imaginings of an inevitable death awaiting him. The phenomenon, described in similar terms by Gmelin and Krasheninnikov in their respective accounts, is that of macropsia - whereby small objects are perceived as being enormous - a symptom of (among other conditions, both natural and self-inflicted) the use of psychoactive drugsUnnithan SB, Cutting JC. The cocaine experience: Refuting the concept of a model psychosis? Psychopathol 1992; 25: 71-78. (see also dysmetropsia). It is not clear, in this context, whether the similarity between the two accounts is due simply to the fungal and the plant drug eliciting similar symptoms or whether there has been a borrowing of phraseology from one author to another (in which direction it is hard to say). The inference would likely be that any borrowing were from the Physochlaina account to the Amanita account, were it not for the fact that accounts of macropsia caused by tropane-containing Solanaceae are rare, while those of macropsia caused by Amanita muscaria are common (or perhaps merely oft-repeated, from a few early sources). To this question one may further adduce the account of Amanita muscaria-induced macropsia in another early source, namely that of Georg Heinrich von Langsdorff, which seems as close in tone to Gmelin's account as does that of Krasheninnikov:
The nerves are highly stimulated, and in this state the slightest effort of will produces very powerful effects. Consequently, if one wishes to step over a small stick or straw, he steps and jumps as though the obstacles were tree trunks. If a man is ordinarily talkative...he involuntarily blurts out secrets, fully conscious of his actions and aware of his secret but unable to hold his nerves in check. The muscles are controlled by an uncoordinated activity of the nerves themselves, uninfluenced by and unconnected with the higher willpower of the brain, and thus it has occasionally happened that persons in this stage of intoxication found themselves driven irresistibly into ditches, streams, ponds and the like, seeing the impending danger before their eyes but unable to avoid certain death except by the assistance of friends who rushed to their aid.von Langsdorff, Georg Heinrich Einige Bemerkungen, die Eigenschaften des Kamtschadalischen Fliegenschwammes betreffend ( Some Remarks Concerning the Properties of the Fly Agaric of Kamchatka) Wetterauischen Gesellschaft für die gesammte Naturkunde. Annalen ( Annals of the Wetterau Natural History Society), Vol. 1, No. 2, Frankfurt M. 1809. pps 249-256. Translation of a paper (submitted in French by von Langsdorff to the Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg) by Gordon Wasson in Soma, Divine Mushroom of Immortality, pub. Harvest/Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
- compare Gmelin's a straw for the thickest of beams and he will take a great stride out of all proportion to the actual size of it. One recalls also the reference to the danger (or fear) of falling into deep water. Furthermore it is possible that the phrase 'he speaks continually without knowing what he is saying' which has crept into the Prévost ' Histoire générale... ' version of Gmelin's account may have influenced von Langsdorff's description of the compulsive babbling of the Amanita-intoxicated individual.
The northern Tungusic peoples, such as the Evens of eastern Siberia and the Evenks of central Siberia (encountered by Gmelin), have occasionally been reported to have used Amanita muscaria as an intoxicant, although with nothing like the frequency of certain other ethnolinguistic groups, such as, for instance, the Itelmens and Koryaks encountered by Krasheninnikov. The use of Amanita muscaria by the Tungus (Evenki) as an additional ingredient to their Physochlaina beer would furnish yet a third explanation for the similarities in the reported effects of the Tungus drink and the Fly Agaric, but Gmelin makes no mention of such a fungal ingredient and, given that the use of Physochlaina as an intoxicant appears to have ceased among the Tungus of the Angara river region, no more information on the subject is likely to be forthcoming.
1772. 31 May. The road to Chindanturuk never leaves the river (Onon River) with its charming bed. The banks presented a delightful prospect of Spring flowers...At a distance of twenty-seven from the stream Udagataï, one finds rising from the shallows of the river a great steep and craggy rock which the Tungus call Kiroé ("crane" in their language), lying near to the Borzya River...I observed growing among the Urtica which surround the base of this rock the Physalis-like henbane ( Hyoscyamus physaloides). The Tungus make use of its narcotic seed; they roast it like coffee and drink the decoction with their dinner.A second account (later in publication date than the Reisen... but earlier than the Voyages...) of the relevant part of Pallas's expedition by an anonymous anthologist of eighteenth century travel writing provides some further details absent from the French translation and derived possibly from Pallas's original German text.
The lowlands lead onward to the outpost of Udagatai, and, farther yet to Chindanturuk, where one sees growing in abundance, beneath the nettles which grow beside the rocks, Hyosciamus physalodes sic, a rare plant, the intoxicating seed (which ripens toward the end of July) of which the Tungus roast thoroughly in a frying pan, as one roasts coffee, and boil to make a beverage which they drink with their dinner.Author Histoire des Decouvertes faites par divers savans voyageurs dans plusieurs contrées de la Russie & de la Perse, relativement à l'Histoire civile & naturelle à l'Économie rurale, au commerce &c. pub. Aberne, chez François Seizer et Comp., 1787.The question naturally arises as to which Tungusic people (or peoples) it was that Pallas encountered in Dauria. The Daurs themselves are speakers of the Mongolic language Dagur language (a.k.a. Dagur), but there are three Daurian ethnic groupings of Tungus affiliation, namely the Oroqen people, Solon people and Hamnigan (spelled also "Khamnigan"). These three have all been considered subgroups of the Evenks, but the Solon and, more especially the Khamnigan have interacted closely with the Mongolic Daur, Buryats and Khalkha Mongols peoples to the extent that they are ethnically quite distinct from the Evenki of the Yenissei, encountered by Gmelin.Winston, Robert, ed. (2004). Human: The Definitive Visual Guide. New York: Dorling Kindersley. p. 428. . Scholar of eastern Asiatic languages Professor Juha Janhunen of the University of Helsinki is of the opinion that the Khamnigan (with whom he has personally undertaken fieldwork) are of Mongolic rather than Tungusic ethnic affiliation and that, of the remaining two groups (Oroqen and Solon), the Oroqen are the closest to the Evenki proper (which group includes the Evenki of the Yenisei basin).Janhunen, Juha (1996), Manchuria: an ethnic history, Volume 222 of Suomalais-ugrilaisen Seuran toimituksia, Suomalais-ugrilainen Seura, Finno-Ugrian Society If this is indeed the case, then it may have been the Oroqen who were preparing a narcotic drink from roasted Physochlaina seed, assuming that Physochlaina use was a peculiarly North Tungusic culture trait - as manifested also in the brewing of Physochlaina beer by the Evenki of the Yenisei.
There remain questions concerning the Tungus "coffee" itself: to guess at its effects one would need to know the average tropane alkaloid content of seeds and also to what extent - if any - the roasting or dry-frying of this seed would diminish such content.
A comparison of Gmelin's vivid description of the effects of the Yeniseian Physochlaina beer and such meagre information as is given in Pallas's account of the Physochlaina "coffee" of Dauria is instructive: the former paints a picture of an intoxication so strong as to be terrifying rather than pleasurable and accompanied by the profoundly disorientating symptom of macropsia, while the latter suggests almost a Tungus version of a coffee morning or dinner party where a mild stimulant like coffee or a mild intoxicant like wine is consumed to promote Drinking culture: judging from the testimony of Gmelin, one doubts whether a consumer of Physochlaina beer could muster the coordination to eat at all, let alone converse coherently during a meal. Entheogens, as their name suggests, are generally used in a ritual or religious setting,Furst, Peter T. Hallucinogens and Culture pub. Chandler and Sharp 1976 (volume forming part of series on cross-cultural themes). whereas it is milder intoxicants, such as wine, or kava, which are used as a disinhibiting accompaniment to the communal consumption of food. This said, there is nothing in the Gmelin account that smacks of the religious (although it is not known if he ever witnessed Physochlaina intoxication at first hand) and there do not appear to be any surviving accounts of the use of Physochlaina physaloides in shamanic practices - if, indeed, any such ever existed.
Carl Hartwich mentions thus the Physochlaina "coffee" of the Tungus on page 327 of his monumental Die Menschlichen Genussmittel:
Hyoscyamus sp. Die gerösteten samen werden in Sibirien bei den Tungusen benutzt. Die dürften stark narkotisch sein. (Welter S. 427)) (Translation: Hyoscyamus sp. The roasted seeds are used by the Tungus in Siberia. They are likely to be very narcotic (Welter S. 427)).As is the case with his note on Tungus Physochlaina beer, Hartwich quotes as a reference, not a primary source in German from the work of an 18th-century explorer, but a secondary French source - in this case a work devoted to coffee and its substitutes by one Henri Welter.,Welter, Henri, Essaie sur l'histoire du Café, pub. Paris 1868. page 427 of which bears the note:
Les Kalmuks et les Tongouses de la Sibérie se prépare des boissons semblables au café, les premiers avec les graines de l'Erable de Tartarie ( Acer tartaricum, L.) et les seconds avec celles d'une espèce de jusquiame. (Translation: The Kalmuks and Tungus of Siberia prepare for themselves drinks similar to coffee, the former with the seeds of the Tartar Maple ( Acer tataricum L.) and the latter with those of a species of henbane).It will be seen from the above that the comment concerning the narcotic potential of "Hyoscyamus" seed (meaning, in this context, the seed of Physochlaina physaloides) is absent from the Welter source and has been added by the more ethnobotanically-literate Hartwich. Welter's essay on the history of coffee unfortunately lacks a bibliography, but the source of his information is almost certainly Pallas, who makes plain that the plant intended is specifically that now known not as Hyoscyamus physaloides, but as Physochlaina physaloides. Welter and Hartwich mention, respectively, in this context "a species of henbane" and "Hyoscyamus sp."
Habitat in Grotto circa Kislovodsk et in Iberia. Floret primo vere. – Marschall von Bieberstein. Flora Taurico-caucasica 1808Confusingly, the species of Physochlaina most commonly encountered in cultivation not only bears what appears to be a counter-intuitive specific name, but is also not a universally-accepted species : the plant grown as an ornamental under the name Physochlaina orientalis (M.Bieb.) G.Don, far from being ( as its specific name appears to imply ) the Physochlaina species with the easternmost distribution is, in fact, that with the westernmost, as it is native to eastern Turkey, southern Russia, the Caucasus and north-western Iran.Phillips, Roger and Rix, Martyn Perennials, 2 vols. pub. Pan 1991, vol 1 Early Perennials, page 77.Rechinger, Karl Heinz and Schönbeck-Temesy, Eva 1972. Solanaceae. Nº 100,102 pp. – a fascicle of Flora Iranica : Flora des iranischen Hochlandes und der umrahmenden Gebirge; Persien, Afghanistan, Teile von West-Pakistan, Nord-Iraq, Azerbaidjan, Turkmenistan (Translation : 'Flora Iranica : Flora of the Iranian Highlands and the mountain ranges adjoining; taking in Iran and Afghanistan, and including also parts of Pakistan, Northern Iraq, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan') pps. 48–49 as 'Physochlaena (sic) orientalis'.
This apparent misnomer is an artifact of the plant's having initially been placed in the henbane genus Hyoscyamus as H. orientalis before the creation of the genus Physochlaina and the discovery and naming of its ( Physochlaina 's) species of predominantly Chinese provenance.
The plant cultivated under the name Physochlaina orientalis (referable possibly to P. physaloides – see below) is a Rhizome, clump-forming, perennial, up to 45 cm in height, bearing attractive, funnel-shaped flowers of a pale purplish-blue, followed, in fruit, by pubescent calyces much longer than the capsules enclosed.
In cultivation in the United Kingdom it can flower between March and May, flowering usually in the month of April, when it can make a fitting companion for Spring-flowering , particularly those sharing its preference for well-drained soil – indeed its Summer dormancy, as a perennial Ephemeral plant (an adaptation to drought, characteristic of Mediterranean vegetation) resembles that of many genera of bulbous plants e.g. Tulipa.Rix, Martyn Growing Bulbs, pub. Croom Helm 1983
Despite its merits as a garden flower, P. orientalis is still seldom to be seen in British gardens, although it has been grown in Britain since at least 1818 – as noted by Robert Sweet :
This pretty Spring-flowering plant was raised from seed, received from Moscow, by Messrs. Whitley, Brames and Milne, at Fulham in the year 1818.Sweet, Robert (1823–1829). The British Flower Garden : coloured figures & descriptions of the most ornamental & curious hardy herbaceous plants. Drawings by Edwin Dalton Smith. London: W. Simpkin and R. Marshall. Series 1 : volume 1 1823–1825 : no.12 : HYOSCYAMUS orientalis. Oriental Henbane. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011570305 Retrieved 14.34 on 23/10/18.
In the wild, near the historic, Turkish, silver-mining town of Gümüşhane (on the westernmost edge of its range) P. orientalis is frequently to be found growing near cave mouths and in rock crevicesFlora of Turkey and the East Aegean Islands ed. Davis, P.H., pub. University of Edinburgh Press 1978, reprinted 1997, 2001 and 2008. pps. 452-3- exactly the type of microclimate referenced by Marschall von Bieberstein in his original description of 1808, where he speaks of ' grottos near the acidic mineral springs of Narzana (= Narzan Baths, Kislovodsk, North Caucasus) '. ( Compare also a similar penchant for growing in rock crevices on the part of the Xinjiang species Physochlaina capitata – see above ).
The plant's country of origin is given in von Bieberstein's original description of ' Hyoscyamus orientalis ' (now Physochlaina orientalis) as Caucasian Iberia – a former kingdom, the heartland of which is the modern Georgian province of Kartli. The Caucasian Kingdom of Iberia also encompassed parts of Armenia, Azerbaijan, southern Russia and eastern Turkey.
Flora Iranica is in agreement on this range of occurrence for P. orientalis, adding also to the list of territories not only north-western Iran but also 'Syr Darja' – the latter being referable to lands traversed by the river Syr Darya and, more especially the historic Syr-Darya Oblast and hence modern Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan lies outside the area encompassed by Flora Iranica, but parts of neighbouring Turkmenistan do not. Either way, Flora Iranica is unequivocal in describing the range of Physochlaina orientalis as extending eastward into Central Asia.
In her unusually well-illustrated degree paper of 2016, Uzbek ecologist Gulzira Mamatqulova of Andijan State University provides valuable information on the endangered status, habitat and continued medicinal use of Physochlaina alaica in Uzbekistan and the states adjoining it. According to her account, the plant is endemic to the Alay and Turkestan Range of the Fergana Region (see also Fergana Valley). In this context she also mentions the Alay Ridge and the basins of the Shohimardon and Sokh River rivers. Note:. In neighbouring Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, she again mentions the Turkestan range, within which she singles out the villages of Vorukh and Khojabakkir. Habitat: the plant is to be found at altitudes between 1,800 and 2,000m, usually in the shade of rocks, bushes or Juniper, but also in open ground. Mamatqulova estimates that there are only some 8,000 plants of this species remaining in the wild. She attributes the increasing rarity of the plant and shrinkage of its range to its over-collection (along with other local species of medicinal plant, such as Ungernia) for medicinal purposes by the indigenous peoples of the area. The plant is included in the Red Book for the area, despite which no special safeguards have yet been put in place to halt its worrying decline. Physochlaina alaica has been in cultivation in the Botanical Garden of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Tashkent since 1973.
Thanks to the efforts of researchers at Zarineh Khoi University, the plant Physochlaina orientalis was Khoi Heights. It was discovered 'in therapeutic use' ? at the Heights of Dalampur, Urmia. The Urmia University Department of Medicinal Plants, in describing the therapeutic properties of the plant said: "This plant is a sedative, nerve stimulant, analgesic, poison and hallucinogen".
Transliterations of place names in the various languages of Iran from the original Persian alphabet forms into Latin script can often yield a confusing number of variant spellings - as is apparent in the variant forms Khoi and Khoy and the still more divergent Dalampur, Dalampir and (with a variant medial consonant as well as vowel) Dalanpar Dalanper etc. Khoy / Khoi University likely refers to the Khoy campus of Urmia University, while the Heights of Dalampur (etc.) appears to designate an area of natural beauty and Iranian domestic tourism encompassing a peak (37°9′N 44°47′E) which forms the tripoint of Iran, Iraq and Turkey, lying some 50 km from the city of Urmia.کشف خواص دارويي دو گياه در ارتفاعات دالامپر اروميه و خوي (Translation: Detection of Medicinal Properties of Two Plants at Dalampir Heights of Urmia and Khoi) - article in I.S.N.A. web archive dated Monday September 21, 2014 1.50pm. N.B..
... experience had taught me daily how difficult it is to distinguish a great many plants, not hitherto well-known, one from another - even those described accurately by Linnaeus and other eminent botanists - and such descriptions may now profitably be compared with actual images of the plants: a better opportunity so to do than I have today could hardly arise, since the Botanic Garden of this University (which need bow to none other in Europe) boasts a great many beautiful species of plant, which one would be hard-pressed to find in many a garden, thanks to the great Linnaeus...and which have - so far as I am aware - been properly depicted nowhere else.van Meerburgh, Nicolaas, Afbeeldingen van zeldzaame gewassen pub. University of Leiden 1775.
On the second page following his introduction, van Meerburgh states thus that the plant depicted in plate 5 of his work is 'Hyoscyamus physalodes' (i.e. the plant now known correctly as Physochlaina physaloides) :
HYOSCYAMUS (physalodes) TAB. V. HYOSCYAMUS (physalodes) foliis ovatis integerrimis, calycibus inflatis subglobosis Linn. Sp. pl. p. 258
- text incorporating the description in Species Plantarum and deriving from volume one of Linnaeus's earlier work Hortus Upsaliensis of 1748, in which a binomial was assigned the plant discovered by Gmelin see. All the above noted, because of the time of year at which the Leiden specimen was drawn, no ripe fruiting calyces were available for depiction. Furthermore the flowers of the specimen display exserted pistils and stamens and the leaves have pointed tips and sinuate margins - all of which suggest an identity compatible more with the Caucasian Physochlaina orientalis rather than the Siberian P. physaloides. The question could be resolved by recourse to actual plant material held (or grown) by the herbarium and/or garden of Lieden's Hortus Botanicus at the present time.
Note:.
This is very like P. physaloides; but differs in the higher stature, and more robust habit; in the herb being pale green, and more downy; the calyx being longer; and in the tube of the corolla widening gradually to the top; in the genitals being usually exserted; and in the calyx being less inflated, and hardly twice as long as the capsule.
Height, robustness and also, to an extent, stem and foliage colour being omitted from the discussion as functions of genetic strain, habitat and nutrition, one is left with relative pubescence, flower shape, exsertion of style and stamens and length and degree of inflation of the fruiting calyx as means of differentiating Don's original two species. To this list may be added the texture of the respective fruiting calyces - as referenced in the common names in Russian of the two species see.
If Physochlaina orientalis were to be demoted to a subspecies of P. physaloides, one would be left with a single, rather variable species, found over an immense range stretching thousands of kilometers from Eastern Turkey through Iran, Central Asia, China and Mongolia all the way to southeastern Siberia.
Given the Central Asiatic provenance of the not-universally-accepted species Physochlaina alaica and P. semenowii and the assertion in Flora Iranica that P. orientalis may be found in Central Asia, it may be that more than one Physochlaina species will be subsumed in the concept of a variable and very wide-ranging P. physaloides.
Such variability and wide distribution bear comparison with those of a much better-known Solanaceous plant : Atropa belladonna, which a consultation of the literature will reveal to have acquired a relatively large number of specific and subspecific names now largely reduced to synonymy with A. belladonna as local varieties of a single very variable species found from the U.K. in the West to northern Iran in the East.
|
|
