Lexic.us

Definition of Ordeal bean

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

Definition of Ordeal bean

1. Noun. The Calabar bean. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Medical Definition of Ordeal 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 Ordeal Bean

Literary usage of Ordeal bean

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. The Annual of Scientific Discovery, Or, Year-book of Facts in Science and Art by David Ames Wells, Charles Robert Cross, John Trowbridge, Samuel Kneeland, George Bliss (1865)
"THE ordeal bean OF ... or Calabar ordeal bean. It belongs to the leguminous tribe, ... to the other eye a solution of the ordeal bean had been applied, ..."

2. Pharmaceutical Journal by Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (1856)
"Specimen of the ordeal bean of Old Calabar, from Dr. Christison. North American Sarsaparilla (Aralia nudicaulis), from Mr. Daniel Hanbury. ..."

3. Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh by Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh (1867)
"Notes of the Insects which feed on the Esere, or Ordeal-Bean of Old Calabar. By JOHN ALEX. SMITH, MD At the last meeting of the Society Dr Smith read ..."

4. The American Journal of the Medical Sciences by Southern Society for Clinical Investigation (U.S.) (1863)
"The ordeal bean may cause contraction of the pupil when taken internally as well as when ... That the ordeal bean paralyzes the motor nerves, and leaves the ..."

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