Eckert based this episode on an actual conversation that took place in 1934 between Dr. William A. Galloway, the great-grandson of Rebecca's father, James A. Galloway, Sr., and a great chemist -- a master of the American botanical materia medica.(2) The latter individual is not identified in the book, but on the basis of the locale, southwestern Ohio, and the qualifications of the chemist, he could he none other than John Uri Lloyd of Cincinnati. No other person in that vicinity in 1934 possessed such qualifications. Lloyd, the scientific genius of the pharmaceutical manufacturing firm of Lloyd Brothers in Cincinnati, is often called "The Father of American Materia Medica." He was greatly interested in, and extremely knowledgeable about, plant drugs utilized by the American Indians. At the time of the conversation he would have been 85 years of age but was still quite active, mentally and physically. He completed his last novel, Our Willie, in that same year.(3)

While walking near Dr. Galloway's ancestral home on the Little Miami River, the doctor pointed out both the tree and the herb to Lloyd. The latter said that his laboratory had isolated a narcotic principle from each. He went on to explain that a secretion of the "peculiar capsule" of the herb was analogous to opium in its narcotic (sedative, sleep-inducing) properties. The chemist also noted that the plant was once indigenous to large areas of the United States and that the narcotic products of its capsule were used from the very earliest times by American Indians to alleviate pain. Lloyd then queried the doctor as to what he knew of the narcotic effects of the berries of the tree.

Dr. Galloway, who had obviously followed the use of these fruits with great interest as a result of his family's secret information concerning them, told Lloyd that the berries had been utilized as an anodyne by one of America's pioneer surgeons. Their activity was about one-third that of opium, and their side effects were much less serious. However, the surgeon car fully guarded the identity of the berries, in view of the fact that they grew abundantly in the forest and people might use them improperly. The conversation between Dr. Galloway and Lloyd concluded with the resolve of both to keep the secret of the narcotic principles ("alkaloids") of these two plants.

At first, some of the aspects of this conversation or, rather, Eckert's fictional interpretation of it, do not seem to ring quite true. It is difficult to imagine Tecumseh as being unwilling to share his secret with the local settlers because he feared it "might do my pale friends harm." Indeed, it seems far more likely that he feared they would use them as did the Indians and become able, like them, to fight on in battle in spite of being severely wounded.

Pioneer surgeons did not work alone; several assistants were usually required to restrain the patient, if nothing else. It is difficult to imagine an effective analgesic, with beneficial effects similar to opium but lacking that drug's side effects, being kept secret for long. This would be particularly true if, unlike opium, the berries could be readily obtained from the surrounding forests.

If the chemist was indeed John Lift Lloyd, an identification strongly supported by circumstantial evidence, some might wonder why he would isolate active constituents from two readily available plants and not exploit the products commercially. The part of the answer relative to the herbaceous plant will be discussed later, following its identification. With respect to the more potent berries of the tree which were never marketed as a drug, the answer seems to lie in the ethical character of John Lift Lloyd. At the end of Chapter XXXV in the early editions of his classic occult novel Etidorpha, Lloyd appended a footnote that speaks to issues of this sort:(4)

If, in the course of experimentation, a chemist should strike upon a compound that in traces only would subject his mind and drive his pen to record such seemingly extravagant ideas as are found in the hallucinations herein pictured, or to frame word-sentences foreign to normal conditions, and beyond his natural ability, and yet could he not know the end of such a drug, would it not be his duty to bury the discovery from others, to cover from mankind the existence of such noxious fruit of the chemist's or pharmaceutist's art?

McKenna has discussed this passage with respect to John Uri Lloyd's probable knowledge of the mind-altering effects of psilocybin, the activity of which was almost certainly known to him as a result of the extensive mycological collections and detailed studies of his brother Curtis Gales Lloyd.(5) But the statement depicts an attitude not just toward hallucinogens but toward all drags that might prove harmful to humanity. It seems most likely that he would have regarded in the same light a psychotropic drug and a powerful anodyne that would have allowed men to continue fighting even after receiving severe wounds in battle. It is also possible that, like most potent narcotics, the berries had been found to be addicting, and he did not wish to market them for that reason. Considering his highly ethical attitude, Lloyd might well have withheld such knowledge even at a substantial financial sacrifice to his firm and himself.

However, the recognized ability of American Indians to withstand in a stoic manner severe pain incurred both in battle and in some of their religious ceremonies does cause one to wonder if unrecognized anodynes were secretly employed by them. Also, the long-existing tradition regarding the existence of such mysterious medicines made it worthwhile to examine the literature on the subject to determine if the lost narcotic plants of the Shawnee might actually exist. The search started with the herbaceous plant because a role model already existed among other Indian tribes. Also, a clue was present in that the plant was said to have a "peculiar capsule."

Datura stramonium L., also known as jimson weed, Jamestown weed, or thorn apple, has a prickly, 4-valved capsule that is so distinctive in appearance that it readily qualifies as "peculiar." The leaf, as well as the flowering or fruiting parts of the plant, contains between 0.2 and 0.5% of an alkaloid mixture consisting chiefly of hyoscyamine accompanied by smaller amounts of atropine and scopolamine as well as other minor alkaloids. Jimson weed in the past was differentiated from D. tatula L., the so-called purple stramonium which has purple flowers and stem. This minor difference is caused by a single pair of genes and is considered relatively insignificant from the taxonomic viewpoint, so D. tatula is now simply an obsolete synonym of D. stramonium.(6)

Over the years, there has been considerable disagreement among botanists as to the indigenous habitat of D. stramonium. Linnaeus gave it as America, others have attributed it to South America, Europe, or Asia. Modern authorities apparently favor North America.(7,8) Regardless of its origin, the species was widespread throughout North America at an early date. Soldiers stationed in the colonial settlement of Jamestown, Virginia, were poisoned by it in 1676. Both white- and purple-flowered jimson weeds were found throughout the entire Ohio region by the end of the nineteenth century and certainly existed there long before that date.(9)

Driver and Massey state that there is no proof that jimson weed was eaten or drank by Indians in any part of the eastern United States. Emboden does, however, report that the Algonquin tribe of the eastern woodlands used the root of the plant as an intoxicant during the ceremony initiating young males into manhood. (10) Datura was extensively used in aboriginal California, primarily to produce visions and dreams which were thought to foretell the future. Moreover, a considerable number of California tribes used it as an anesthetic for setting broken bones or otherwise treating the injured. For these purposes, the leaves, stems, and sometimes the roots of the plant were pounded and soaked in water to make a beverage that was drank.(11)

Datura also found its way Into American domestic medicine in the region surrounding the Ohio Valley some years after Tecumseh revealed its secret to Rebecca Galloway. Lloyd noted that during his boyhood days (1855-60) in Kentucky, it was widely used externally in the form of a poultice or ointment made from the pulp of bruised green leaves to alleviate the pain of bee stings, bruises, and venomous bites.(12) King's American Dispensatory of 1852 reported that in medicinal doses it was an anodyne-antispasmodic used in allaying rheumatic, syphilitic, and neuralgic pains. Further, Lloyd Brothers did exploit the datura plant commercially. In 1927, they were marketing a Specific Medicine prepared from it which they designated Colloidum Stramonium. It was recommended as an antidote for the opium bit and for constriction of the throat.

There is thus ample evidence that Datura stramonium with its "peculiar" capsule and its content of potent solanaceous alkaloids is one of the lost narcotic plants of the Shawnee. This finding also substantiates existing meager reports of the use of datum for its narcotic/analgesic effects by Indian tribes east of the Mississippi River.

In order to make certain that other plants with similar properties were not being overlooked, a NAPRALERT(SM) database search was conducted, courtesy of N.R. Farnsworth, University of Illinois, of all plants in the United States reported to possess analgesic properties. The search identified 91 species of gymnosperms and angiosperms, in addition to D. stramonium, none of which had either the morphological properties or the physiological activity attributed to the lost Shawnee herb. Indeed, datura was by far the most likely candidate of the entire lot.

Turning next to the tree whose berries were said to have analgesic properties about one-third the potency of opium, it was immediately obvious that establishing its identity was a much more difficult task. The NAPRALERT(SM) search identified nine American trees with analgesic properties. Of these, eight species or their near relatives constituted a part of the native woodlands of Ohio.(13) Included were species of Aesculus, Betula, Cornus Hamamelis, Juniperus, Larix, Quercus, and Salix. The computer search also identified the plant part used for its analgesic effect; in no case was it the berries (fruit) of any of the trees.

An extensive study of folkloric remedies in the Indiana area involving more than 175 individual informants and some 800 recipes for various disease stales and conditions also failed to identify any tree in the Indiana-Ohio region, the berries of which possess appreciable analgesic properties.(14) While it is possible that such effects were derived largely flora the datura and that the tree berries contributed only a placebo effect, the story does not imply this. Further, the conversation between Dr. Galloway and John Uri Lloyd specifically identifies the berries of the tree as the stronger anodyne.

The fact that one of the lost narcotic plants of the Shawnee could be identified with reasonable certainty as a result of the clues provided in Eckert's historical novel and its scholarly notes provides considerable hope that the second such plant -- an Ohio tree with a potent narcotic berry -- will ultimately be recognized. While it seems unlikely that a plant with such a high degree of activity and one whose effects have been known to so many people for so many years would not have been recorded in the literature, this now seems to be the case. The only alternative is that such a tree does not exist -- that the entire story is fiction after all. This seems unlikely in view of the identification of the "lost" herbaceous plant with analgesic properties. As is the case with many herbal mysteries, the identity of this second lost narcotic plant of the Shawnee seems worthy of continued pursuit. Suggestions or comments from interested readers are cordially solicited.

In Appreciation

The author wishes to express sincere thanks to Alton A. Lindsey, Professor Emeritus of Biology at Purdue University, for first calling to his attention this intriguing ethnobotanical puzzle. Valuable assistance was also received from Steven Foster, specialist in all things herbal, who called to the author's attention Lloyd's propensity to withhold information on drugs he deemed deleterious to humanity.

References

(1.) Ecken, A. W.: The Frontiersmen, Bantam Books, New York, 1970, pp. 563-564.

(2.) Idem.: Ibid., pp. 717-718.

(3.) Tyler, V. E. and Tyler, V. M.: Journal of Natural Products 50:1-8 (1987).

(4.) Lloyd, J. U.: Etidorpha, 9th ed., The Robert Clarke Company, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1898, p. 276.

(5.) McKenna, A.: "Wasson's Library Precursors," in The Sacred Mushroom Seeker, T. J. Riedlinger, ed., Dioscorides Press, Portland, Oregon, 1990, pp. 169-172.

(6.) Satina, S. and Avery, A. G.: in Blakeslee: The Genus Datura, A. G. Avery, S. Satina, and J. Rietsema, eds., The Ronald Press Company, New York, 1959, pp. 16-21.

(7.) Zeven, A. C. and Zhukovsky, P. M.: Dictionary of Cultivated Plants and Their Centres of Diversity, Centre for Agricultural Publishing and Documentaion, Wageningen, 1975, p. 179.

(8.) Hortus Third, Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., New York, 1976, p. 365.

(9.) Kellerman, W. A. and Werner, W. C.: Geology of Ohio, 3(2): 119 (1895).

(10.) Emboden, W.: Narcotic Plants, rev. ed., Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., New York, 1979, p. 81.

(11.) Driver, H. E. and Massey, W. C.: Transactions of the American Philosophical Society (New Series) 47(2): 273 (1957).

(12.) Lloyd, J. U.: Origin and History of all the Pharmacopeial Vegetable Drugs, Chemicals, and Preparations with Bibliography, Vol. 1, The Caxton Press, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1921,pp. 324-325.

(13.) Gordon, R. B.: Bulletin of the Ohio Biological Survey (New Series) 3(2): 1-109 (1969).

(14.) Tyler, V. E.: Hoosier Home Remedies, Purdue University Press, West Lafayette, Indiana, 1985, 212 pp.

Article copyright American Botanical Council.

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By Varro E. Tyler