Calabar-bean
(kæləˈbɑː ˈbiːn)
[From Calabar, on the Gulf of Guinea, in Africa.]
The seed of Physostigma venenosum, a climbing leguminous plant, called also the Ordeal-bean, administered by the natives to persons suspected of witchcraft.
| 1876 Harley Mat. Med. 654. |
Hence calabarine, ‘an alkaloid found in the Calabar bean’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.).
| 1875 H. Wood Therap. (1879) 310. |