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4 unusual facts about Calabar bean


Calabar bean

Mrs. Barbara Franklin was poisoned by the Calabar bean in Curtain, the last novel both for the author Agatha Christie and her fictional detective Hercule Poirot.

Douglas Argyll Robertson

Robertson made several contributions in the field of ophthalmology; in 1863 he researched the effects on the eye made by physostigmine, an extract from the Calabar bean (Physostigma venenosum), which is found in tropical Africa.

Robert Christison

On poisons in particular he speedily became a high authority; his well-known treatise on them was published in 1829, and in the course of his inquiries he did not hesitate to try such daring experiments on himself as taking large doses of Calabar bean (Physostigmine).

Thomas Richard Fraser

In 1889 and 1890 he reported about an arrow poison used in coastal areas of Kenya and Nigeria and analyzed the highly poisonous Calabar bean and Strophanthus hispidus.



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