Definition of Calabar bean

1. Noun. Dark brown highly poisonous seed of the calabar-bean vine; source of physostigmine and used in native witchcraft.

Exact synonyms: Ordeal Bean
Group relationships: Calabar-bean Vine, Physostigma Venenosum
Generic synonyms: Bean

Medical Definition of Calabar bean

1. The dried seed of Physostigma venenosum (family Leguminosae), a vine of western Africa; it contains the alkaloids physostigmine (eserine), eseramine, eseridine (geneserine) and physovenine; in toxic doses it causes vomiting, colic, salivation, diarrhoea, convulsions, sweating, dyspnea, vertigo, slow pulse, and extreme prostration. Synonym: Calabar bean, ordeal bean. Origin: G. Physa, bellows, + stigma, a mark, spot; so called because of the shape of the stigma (05 Mar 2000)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Calabar Bean

cake alum
cake kidney
cake mix
cakier
cakiest
Cakile
Cakile maritima
cakiness
cakinesses
caking
cakings
caky
calaba
calabar-bean vine
Calabar bean (current term)
calabar bean
Calabar swelling
calabash
calabashes
calabash curare
calabash pipe
calabash tree
calabaza
calabazas
calabazilla
calaboose
calabooses
Calabria
calabura
calabur tree

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