Talk:Hyoscyamus niger

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[edit] Henbane and Pilsener Beers

It seems highly unlikely that Bavarian pilseners before 1516 contained henbane. The pilsener style of beer was invented in Bohemia (in what is today the Czech Republic) in the 19th century. There were no Bavarian pilseners before the Reinheitsgebot. If in fact the etymology of the name of the town of Plzeň is a word for "henbane," this would have nothing to do with pilsener beer, which was first created long after the town had been named. The beer is named after the town, not vice versa.--BenA 13:23, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

Yes, this is highly unlikely considering that pilsner beers were invented in the 19th century. I added a ^{[citation needed]} tag. Merenta (talk) 15:21, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

I don't have a lot of details, but I recall reading in an American botanical book about henbane (at least 50 years old) that henbane was spread in the U.S. (esp. Minnesota) due to Germans having the plants and adding the seeds to their beer. Also, I know there is some recipe available for brewing a beer using henbane. I know this doesn't necessarily relate to Pilsen - but a search in google will probably turn up a lot (if not all) of the relevant info. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.148.210.141 (talk) 09:38, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Historical uses

It would be great if someone created a section dedicated entirely to the historical uses of henbane and included some of the things mentioned here [1] and somehow worked in the fact that Shakespeare's King Hamlet was murdered by means of henbane in his ear, because it's been somehow overlooked here? Burlapbra (talk) 14:43, 20 November 2007 (UTC)