Turn your phone side ways for best viewing!
Physostigma venenosum
Nicknames: Calabar Bean;[1] Esere in Nigeria;[1] Ordeal bean;[2] I love to look at and discuss the meaning and origins of names, so let's have at it. Calabar is the name of a port city located in southern Nigeria, near the Cameroon border. The name Calabar means: "Come and live and be at rest"[3]
Classification: Poison;[1]
Plant Family: Fabaceae;[2] Genus: Physostigma;[2] Species: P. venenosum;[2]
Ethnobotany: The Calabar, or Esere, as they call it in Nigeria, was used in Witch trials, to either confirm or refute accusations of witchcraft against an individual.[1] If the person being tried was found guilty, they were forced to swallow the deadly poison, which was made from the deadly Esere(P. venenosum) plant.[1] This is pretty diabolical, as they put a lot of faith in this plant, and even used it to kill. Realistically, this isn't a very good way of determining whether or not someone is a witch. In one of my favorite books on ethnobotany, it talks about how certain indigenous cultures, including the one that idolized the Calabar bean here, viewed certain plants as gods..[1] "The Efik believe that the Esere (Calabar bean) has the power to reveal and destroy witchcraft".[1] That belief is a lie, and is in itself a form of witchcraft. Only Jesus has the power to break witchcraft.
Natural Habitat: Nigeria;[1]
Anti-dote: In medical science, there's an old rule that goes "like treats like", which means whatever a medicine, drug, or poison induces, it will treat.[5] It means "fight fire with fire", basically. This isn't always the case however; According to wikipedia: "The main antidote to Calabar bean poisoning is the slightly less toxic tropane alkaloid atropine" They didn't provide a citation however, so I decided to do some academic digging to fact check this myself, and was able to confirm it with an academic source, which I cite at the end of this sentence.[6] By the way, an anti-dote is a drug taken or given to counteract a particular poison.[7]
OG Observations: The more that I study ethnobotany, and the more than I learn about new poisonous plants that indigenous cultures viewed as gods, and pumped insane amounts of faith into for super-natural guidance and powers, the more obvious it is to me that these particular poisonous plants, including Calabar bean, are the fruits of the trees of knowledge from the book of Genesis in the bible. Terrence Mckenna mentions this theory numerous times in his lectures as well, so it has academic backing. It just makes sense, because God hath said, "in the day ye eat thereof, ye shall surely die", and the serpent said, "the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods!"
The Truth About The Ethnobotanical Industry A lot of people think that the ethnobotanical industry is just a bunch of criminals pretending to be legitimate, and that may be true to some extent, but not entirely. Truly, it is the guys who are operating legally who get their toes stomped on, because the illegal drug manufacturing operations being run across the country, and globe even, depend on some(a few, not most) of these ethnobotanicals for their various operations, as they contain the precursors to various illegal substances, and even controlled substances on their own accord. Big pharmaceutical companies use and process large quantities of a lot of the same ethnobotanicals that big vendors like Edens Ethnos and Bouncing Bear Botanicals moved. It's a dirty, sketchy, toe stomp ridden industry, that is generally cut throat. There's DEA, FBI, occult groups, serpent medical companies, and fortune 500 interest, as well as supremacy gangs, that all seek to control the industry. I'm here to combat them and have my influence in this niche. It's been fun.
Phytochemicals: Phytochemicals are pharmacological components that herbal remedies, and poisonous plants produce. Phytochemicals can be narcotic, poisonous, medicinal, deliriant, or psychedelic in nature. Calabar bean produces: Physostigmine, a reversible cholinesterase inhibitor alkaloid.[2][3] The alkaloid physostigmine acts in effect like nerve gas[2][3] It also produces something called Calabarine;[4] Calabarine is insolbule in water[4] Finally, it produces another unique component called Eserine;[4] If you've been paying attention, then you notice that these three chemicals are all named after the scientific name of the plant, and or its common nicknames. This typically indicates that these specific components are rare, and unique to this specific species, or a select few like it. Researchers don't name phytochemicals after the plant, unless they feel strongly they belong specifically to THAT PLANT. Pay attention to names, they're very telling, and have their own meanings.
Buy Physostigma venenosum
Academic citations:
[3] Proudfoot, Alex. "The early toxicology of physostigmine: a tale of beans, great men and egos." Toxicological reviews 25 (2006): 99-138.
[4] LLOYD, JOHN URI, and O. CINCINNATI. "VENENOSUM (CALABAR)."
[5] Tedesco, Paula, and Jane Cicchetti. "Like cures like: homeopathy." AJN The American Journal of Nursing 101.9 (2001): 43-49.
[6] Obi, Juliet O., et al. "The Calabar bean and physostigmine: from African ethno-jurisprudence to medicinal discovery and modern pharmacotherapeutics." American Journal of Pharmacotherapy and Pharmaceutical Sciences 2 (2023).
[7] Merriam Webster's Online Dictionary - Anti-dote: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/antidote
[1] Balick, Michael J., and Paul Alan Cox. Plants, People, and Culture : The Science of Ethnobotany. New York, Garland Science, 2020.
Encyclopedia Sources:
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physostigma_venenosum
[3] https://www.names.org/n/calabar/about
Other resources:
M.A.P.S. Ethnobotanical Studies By Scholars
PubChem - pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov