The Ancient World of Sleep Potions and Toxins for Sleep Potions
If you have seen movies like Merlin, or Legend of the Seeker, you must have seen lots of portions being used. You see, from old days, portions have been used and although portions for purposes such as living forever didn't exist, people were able to use portions for a lot of things including sleep portions.
For the longest of time, people have had issues with sleep and so it is not surprising that sleep portions existed. While in recent times, we would just take drugs like alprazolam, buspirone, chloral, chlordiazepoxide or diazepam it wasn't like that with sleep portions. The recipes of those portions would contain extracts from dry frog, toad, foxglove, or rauwolfia Serpentina root.
Each of these extracts had their contribution to the overall effect of sleeping portions for instance, Foxglove (Digitalis Purpurae) contains the compound Cardiac Glycosides which manipulates the cardiac sodium potassium pump thereby improving heart functions making the heart pump harder and efficiently. With this, the parasympathetic nervous system which then causes the heart rate to become slower as a result of digoxin (which is a toxin), and it is no doubt that a slow heartrate can increase falling asleep.
While foxglove does this, people in ancient times also use Dry toads for sleep portions. Dry toads skin has Bufotoxins which also slows down heart rate. Along with foxglove and butoxins are also portions from Indian Snakeroot (Rauvolfia Serpentina) was used. The Indian snakeroot contains alkaloids reserpine which helps can cause calmness of the entire nervous system, drowsiness, and lower blood pressure.Reserpine inhibits message transfer from one neurotransmitter to the other. These ingredient will then be added into Almond Oil since it is a portion.
While there were a lot of sleep portions produced out of substances that were toxic, there were other sleep portions that look similar to the sleep portions we have in our world today such as Laudanum in the 16th century which is made up of opiom and alcohol and was also used as painkiller, and cough suppressant.
Let me state that the substances used for these potions at the time were poisonous. That said, let's discuss poison. While in an animal or plant it can be a defence mechanism but if used wrongly, it can be very deadly. Poisons such as Brodifacoum is very effective. It is commonly used as rat poison and trust me when I say it is very dangerous. It is an anticoagulant poison which has become the most widely used pesticide in the world but when it comes in contact with human blood, it works as an anticoagulant which stays in the blood for 9 months. People who get this poison would be treated with Vitamin K infusion and blood transfusion until the poison is out of the blood.
Tetradotoxin is another toxin and it is found in Puffer fish. When Sushi chefs tries to cut the Pufferfish carefully he is preventing tetradotoxin from getting into the bloodstream because it is one of the most powerful neurotoxin. The toxin is produced by bacteria and when ingested, it will shut down the nervous system and prevent muscle contractions. Symptoms of tetradotoxin poison woould include paralysis, trouble breathing, vomiting, seizure, and respiratory failure and people who are poisoned can die within 6 hours. Poison from the pufferfish currently has no known antidote but a few people have survived as a result of fast-moving respiratory aid which helps them to stay alive until the poison subsides.
I should also state that you should not get involved in these potions because you might be dealing with a very toxic one for instance, Batrachotoxin which is a potent neurotoxin found in poison dart frog and Pitohui bird. There is no antidote for this poison which is found in the skin of the frog but it ca be treated with another poison which we discussed before known as Tetrodotoxin found in pufferfish.
The history of sleep potions is a tapestry woven with fascinating ingredients and concoctions. From foxglove and toads to Laudanum, these potions provide a glimpse into the creative ways our ancestors addressed the universal challenge of achieving a restful night's sleep.
Reference
https://www.mdpi.com/2673-9976/12/1/32
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9020611/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7070989/
https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-94-007-6726-3_16-1
https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Digoxin
https://people.wou.edu/~courtna/ch350/Projects_2006/Grimes/index.html
https://worldwidescience.org/topicpages/f/foxglove+digitalis+purpurea.html
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6408973/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK507714/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/4324825/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/batrachotoxin
I always marvel at how they blend different ingredients to create these potions during old times. They had great knowledge of natural forces and how they function. Recently, I've watched a documentary where it was highlighted that some of it is still practiced in certain remote parts of the world.
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