A two-year herbaceous soft-furred, sticky plant with an unpleasant smell. The plant has an antispasmodic effect The plant is very poisonous! A biennial herbaceous plant, entirely covered with soft, sticky pubescence. The root is vertical, slightly branched up to 2-3 cm thick, soft, with a thickened root neck. Leaves of a fairly broad morphology: dark green above, lighter below, lower in the basal rosette, petiolate, oblong-ovate, notched-pinnate-incised, usually die off by the time of flowering; stem – alternate, sessile, semi-stem-embracing, ovate-lanceolate, notched-lobed 3-25 cm long, 3-10 cm wide. The stem is branched, reaches 20-60 cm in height or more, cylindrical, densely covered with glandular trichomes (hairs). The flowers are large (2.5-4 cm in diameter), slightly zygomorphic, sessile, located in the axils of the upper leaves. The formula of the flower henbane: ↑Ч5Л5Т5П2. Calyx cristalina, globalreplica, with the remaining fruit. Corolla srostnolepestny, widely funnel-shaped with a dirty yellow tint, with a network of dark purple veins and a dark purple throat. The fruit is a box enclosed in a hardened Cup and opening with a lid. Seeds are small (1.5 mm long), brownish-gray, rounded or slightly kidney-shaped, flattened, with a mesh-cellular surface. Blooms in June-July, seeds ripen in August-September.
The most widely used is atropine derived from the leaves of henbane, especially in ophthalmic practice. It is also used in the treatment of internal diseases: peptic ulcer of the stomach and duodenum, bronchial asthma, spastic conditions of the intestines and bile ducts. From the leaves of henbane get "bleached oil" (oleum Hyoscyami), used for rubbing in rheumatic and neuralgic pain. Black henbane leaves are part of the anti-asthmatic collection.
Preparations from the herb henbane are also widely used in obstetrics and gynecology, they are prescribed for dysmenorrhea, to reduce painful spasms of the muscles of the cervix, rectum, urethra and vagina.
Galenic preparations of black henbane have limited use. The plant is poisonous and preparations from it are used only as prescribed and under the supervision of a doctor. Preparations from the herb henbane are contraindicated in pregnant women.