Introduction - Uppsala Monitoring Centre

16. Hellebore (alias Christmas Rose, Veratum niger or
Helleborus niger) ‘is dangerous to persons whose flesh is
sound, for it induces convulsion. … Convulsions following the
administration of hellebore are fatal.’ (The rhizome contains
helleborin, and hellebrigenin. Helleborin is a potent narcotic
with a burning acrid taste, while hellebrin is listed as a digitalic,
narcotic and said to possess anticarcinomic characteristics. In
its role as a digitalic it also can function as a purgative. It is a
cardiac glycoside ). Hippocrates was among those who used
hellebore ‘It was in such wide use that the old physicians used
the medicine in similar cases that it produced the proverb ‘to
need Hellebore’ means that ‘you have lost your senses.’ (Le
Clerc, 1702).
354 BC The Economist by Xenophon 16 ‘None whatever, unless we are
prepared to admit that Hyoscyamus, as they call it, is wealth, a
poison the property of which is to drive those who take it mad.’ ‘A
dose of henbane, ‘ “hogs’-bean,” so called.’ Diosc. 4. 69; 6. 15; Plut.
‘Demetr’. xx. (Clough, v. 114).
320 BC Theophrastus of Eresos (372–286 BC), a Greek philosopher who
had been a pupil of Aristotle and Plato, wrote ‘De Historia Plantarum’
[About the history of plants] consisting of nine books, one of which is
called ‘Saps and medicines’. Its full title: ‘De historia plantarum libri
decem, græce & latine. In quibus textum græcum variis lectionibus,
emendationibus, hiulcorum, supplementis: latinam gazæ versionem
nova interpretatione ad margines: totum opus absolutissimis cum
notis, tum De Causis Plantarums’. [Ten books about the history of
plants, in Greek and in Latin. The Greek version has various
readings, amendments, gaps and additions: the Latin version of the
treasure house is with new interpretations in the margins: the whole
work not only with very many notes but also concerning the Causes
of Plants]. Part of this work is devoted to plant lore and the medicinal
uses of plants, making it the earliest complete extant herbal and
pharmacopoeia as well. Contains 500 plants. He was aquainted with
tolerance ‘The virtues of all drugs become weaker to those who are
accustomed to them, and in some cases become entirely ineffective.
Thus some eat enough hellebore to consume whole bundles and yet
suffer no hurt’.
265 BC Huang Di Nei Jing Su Wen (The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of
16 Xenophon = Exophanes, a Greek philospher from Colophon