Wartime home grown anaesthetics. Part 4: Winter

White bryony flower

In this series we are looking at plants which were used as anaesthetics in ancient Roman and medieval times and in wartime Britain.  In my last three posts in March, June and September, I described the progress of several such plants including henbane, jimsonweed/thornapple, white bryony/English mandrake, mediterranean/european mandrake, opium poppy, hemlock/poison hemlock, monkshood/wolfsbane and deadly nightshade.  It’s now December, the garden is dormant so let’s take a look at how one might use these plants in practice.

First the usual warning: DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME.  These plants can be highly toxic or even fatal.  The purpose of this series is to imagine what we might have to do if we were thrown into some national emergency, the usual supply lines for the import of pharmaceuticals broke down, and we had to make do with whatever was at hand – just like people did in wartime Britain.  These are not recreational drugs and nobody should attempt to use them as such. 

Having said all that, I decided to try out some of these plants on myself, as it wouldn’t be ethical for me to experiment on anyone else - I would probably find myself up before the General Medical Council if I did so.  In doing so, I am following in the footsteps of numerous ground-breaking doctors who experimented on themselves in times past including Dr William Stark (nutrition), Dr Werner Forssmann (cardiac catheterisation), Dr Barry Marshall (Helicobacter), Dr Evan O’Neill Kane (appendectomy under local anaesthetic) and Dr Alexander Bogdanov (blood transfusions).  The main questions I wanted to answer were: do the plants work, what is the correct dose range, and how best to administer them?

I wasn’t able to try out all of the plants because some of them didn’t put on enough growth during the year to produce sufficient material, but the ones I was able to grow in adequate quantities were henbane, jimsonweed/thornapple, white bryony and opium poppy.

There is little information available about exactly how Roman and medieval practitioners administered these plants, or in what quantities, so much of what follows is experimentation from first principles.

If toxic pharmaceuticals are present in a plant, they are generally present throughout all parts of the plant in varying concentrations.  Some parts of the plant are easier to preserve than others.  Most of a plant consists of leaves, so to produce plant based anaesthetics in bulk, leaves would be the obvious choice, and this is generally what was used in wartime Britain.  However, preserving large quantities of leaves is problematic: you have to harvest them at the right time, then you either have to dry them in the field like hay, or in a ventilated barn or specially constructed drying shed, or hang them in bunches over the kitchen fireplace.  These methods can be difficult if you live in an average suburban house, as most people do, and you only want to process small quantities.  Seeds are probably the most practical part of the plant to use for small or experimental quantities, because nature has designed seeds to be easy to dry and preserve at room temperature.  

Henbane

Henbane has a long history of use as a soporific, and what little information is available suggests that in medieval times the seeds were burned and people inhaled the smoke.  I therefore tried roasting henbane seeds and inhaling the smoke.  After twenty minutes of this there was no noticeable effect.

Henbane seed capsules and seeds

Jimsonweed/thornapple

Used to induce drowsiness, like henbane.  I also tried roasting these seeds and inhaling the smoke but with the same effect as the henbane: no noticeable effects after 20 minutes.  

Next, I tried crushing some seeds and mixing them with honey to see if I could make something which could be eaten.  The result looked and tasted like a blob of runny dog poo.  

Please clean up after your dog

Opium poppy

Opium has been used for pain relief for thousands of years.  In the Isle of Man it is legal to cultivate opium poppies for ornamental purposes but illegal to harvest opium from them.  However, there is no law against collecting the seeds: they are frequently used in cookery, and athletes have to be careful when eating them because they can produce a positive drug test due to traces of opium left on the surface.  I therefore tried roasting some opium poppy seeds and inhaling the smoke.  I can’t say there was no noticeable effect at all – I was starting to feel a bit sleepy - but it was hard to tell whether this was because of anything I had inhaled or because by now it was late in the evening.  Plus I was starting to feel like a refugee from a burning building due to all the smoke inhalation. 

 

Opium poppy seed capsule and seeds

White bryony

The turnip-like root of white bryony was the part of the plant used by medieval practitioners to induce drowsiness.  This plant has been growing on my allotment for three years, and the root has reached a massive 2.2kg (four and a half pounds) and is almost the size of a football.  After digging up the root, I took the opportunity to divide it into three, so next year I will have three plants – see photos.

 

A massive four and a half pound white bryony root

View of the root from above, showing the "eyes" or sprouts

The root divided into three, each with some "eyes"

The three sections of root planted in pots.  These will overwinter in the cold frame.

I made some white bryony tea by pouring boiling water over some slices of root.  The result smelled even worse than the thornapple dog poo honey.  I couldn’t drink it.

Slices of white bryony root ready for drying and preserving

Conclusion

These experiments may look on the face of it like a failure, but great inventions often don’t work the first time, and I learned some useful information.

Despite the dire warnings from some sources about the deadly nature of these plants (“highly poisonous”… “handle with gloves”… ”wash your hands after handling” and so on), in practice it seems to be very difficult to poison yourself with them, or even to consume enough of them to have any noticeable effect.  There are some anecdotal reports of deaths associated with henbane, jimsonweed and white bryony, but I have been unable to find any reliable confirmed reports in the medical or scientific literature, and in the anecdotal reports it is likely that other factors like alcohol or cold exposure were responsible for the deaths.  There are numerous well documented reports of deaths from opioids, but these almost always involve injections of highly purified or synthetic opioids like fentanyl and heroin.  Deaths from opium smoking are usually delayed deaths due to lung cancer or chronic bronchitis from long term use, similar to cigarette smoking; sudden deaths are very rare.  One can therefore probably cautiously conclude that short term use of these plants for medicinal purposes is fairly safe.

However, it is important not to become complacent and assume that all plants are safe.  Some plants are more dangerous than others.  There have been numerous well documented reports of deaths from ingesting belladonna, hemlock, monkshood and certain species of poisonous mushroom; however, these are not the plants I am talking about in this post. 

This is currently a work in progress, and my next task is to make more palatable extracts from these plants.  It would help if I had some formal training in herbal medicine or even cookery, but unfortunately these were not part of my medical school curriculum.  If any readers have any suggestions I would be grateful to receive them.  

Have a Merry Yule and a Happy New Year.  

Slaynt vie, bea veayn, beeal fliugh as baase ayns Mannin