calabar : Idioms & Phrases

Index

Calabar bean

  • noun dark brown highly poisonous seed of the calabar-bean vine; source of physostigmine and used in native witchcraft
    ordeal bean.
WordNet
  • The of a climbing legumious plant (Physostigma venenosum), a native of tropical Africa. It is highly poisonous. It is used to produce contraction of the pupil of the eye; also in tetanus, neuralgia, and rheumatic diseases; called also ordeal bean, being used by the negroes in trials for witchcraft.
Webster 1913

calabar-bean vine

  • noun tropical African woody vine yielding calabar beans
    Physostigma venenosum.
WordNet