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Ordeal or Calabar Bean
(physostigma
venenosum) is native to an area
of Nigeria known as Calabar. The poisonous seeds of the
calabar bean
were used as an ordeal poison to identify witches or
those possessed
by evil spirits. The accused were made to take drink
made of the beans.
The accused were declared innocent if they survived otherwise
guilty
if they died of respiratory failure. The trick to survive
the ordeal is to
take big gulps of the drink to make one sick and regurgitate
the poison.
The active ingredient of the ordeal bean is the alkaloid
physostigmine
that prolongs the activity of acetylcholine by binding
to acetylcholin-
esterase. It is used in insecticide and nerve gas in
chemical warfare.
In ophthalmology, it was used to treat glaucoma for over
a century.
Nowadays, it is mainly used for myasthenia gravis. |
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