Witches' flying ointment - Part 1

Deadly Nightshade plants growing in car tyres

USUAL WARNING: DO NOT TRY ANY OF THIS UNLESS YOU ARE A DOCTOR.  AND PREFERABLY NOT EVEN THEN.

As you may remember, this blog is about discovering (or rediscovering) plant based anaesthetics.  I am going to spend the remaining blog posts this year looking at how to prepare “witches’ flying ointment”.  In today’s post (June) we will look at what witches’ flying ointment was, or was believed to be.  In the next post (September) we will look at how to grow and preserve the plants which form its active ingredients, and in the final post (December) we will look at how to make the ointment itself.  

Some medieval Church authorities believed that witches’ flying ointment was a magical ointment which allowed witches to fly on broomsticks to sabbaths (gatherings) and consort with the Devil.  Some modern historians believe that it was a hallucinogenic ointment which so-called witches applied to themselves and which gave them the sensation of flying, even though in reality they never left the ground.  I am testing the theory that it was a type of anaesthetic medication which medieval healers and “cunning-folk” used to relieve pain, for example during childbirth or when treating illnesses or injuries.  And who knows, maybe they sometimes used it on themselves as well?  With no TV, people had to make their own entertainment in those days.

I want to make it absolutely clear, however, that I am not encouraging anyone reading this blog to use it for recreational purposes.  I am only researching it for its potential use as an anaesthetic, in the event that conventional anaesthetics become unavailable.  Anyone using it for any other purpose does so at their own risk.

So let’s look at what properties would be desirable in an anaesthetic. These properties are the same whether we are talking about ancient Graeco-Roman times, medieval times or modern times.  They are:

• Pain relief
• Muscle relaxation.  You don’t want your patient to be thrashing about while you are trying to operate on them.
• Drowsiness or sleep.  Medieval surgery was probably an unpleasant experience which most people would rather be asleep for.
• Can be applied in ways other than being taken by mouth.  Important if you are treating a semi-conscious or severely injured patient who may not be able to swallow medication.
• Can be applied in a dose which can be adjusted depending on the patient’s response, so for example, if you are not getting enough effect you can apply more of it, or if you are getting too much effect you can apply less.
• Formulation can be adjusted depending on the type of procedure being performed.  For example, if you are performing an amputation of a severely injured limb, muscle relaxation, drowsiness and pain relief would all be equally important.  However, if you are attending a childbirth, you would want pain relief but not so much drowsiness or muscle relaxation, because you want the woman to remain conscious and to be able to push the baby out.

An anaesthetic ointment which can be applied to and absorbed through the skin would potentially meet all of these requirements.  It is not unusual for medication to be given this way even in modern times; for example, modern doctors often prescribe drugs in the form of self-adhesive patches which are applied to the skin. 

The herbal ingredients for making up such an ointment have been well known since Graeco-Roman times and include:

• Henbane (Hyoscyamus niger), Thornapple (Datura stramonium) or White bryony (Bryonia dioica) for drowsiness
• Opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) for pain
• Deadly nightshade (Belladonna atropica) or Monkshood (Aconitum napellus) for muscle relaxation

Some plants have more than one effect; for example, Henbane, Thornapple and White bryony will all cause muscle relaxation as well as drowsiness.

Some plants may be therapeutic in small doses but fatal in large doses.  For example, a small dose of Belladonna may be useful in causing muscle relaxation, but if the patient is given too much of it, it may relax the respiratory muscles so much they they stop breathing and die.  This is probably why, in medieval times, there was considerable overlap in the minds of the Church authorities between village healers (who used herbs for good) and witches or poisoners (who supposedly used them for evil). 

As well as the active herbal ingredients there may be non-active ingredients such as oils and waxes to form a base for the ointment, and herbs such as mint or lavender to make it smell more pleasant.  

I’ll expand on this some more in September.

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