page_title: Physochlaina
section_title: Physochlaina physaloides and the narcotic "coffee" of Dauria
hierarchical_section_title: Physochlaina / Physochlaina physaloides and the narcotic "coffee" of Dauria
caption_attribution_description: Peter Simon Pallas (1741-1811), a silhouette by A. Tardier. Greyscale.
context_page_description: Physochlaina is a small genus of herbaceous perennial plants belonging to the nightshade family, Solanaceae, found principally in the north-western provinces of China although one species occurs in Western Asia, while another is found as far east as those regions of Siberia abutting the eastern borders of Mongolia and, furthermore, not only in Mongolia itself, but also in the Chinese autonomous region of Inner Mongolia. Some sources maintain that the widespread species P. physaloides is found also in Japan, but the species is not recorded as being native in one of the few English-language floras of the country. The genus is a valuable one, since its species are not only of considerable medicinal value, being rich in tropane alkaloids, but also of ornamental value, three species having been grown for the purpose, although hitherto infrequently outside botanical gardens. Furthermore, the genus contains a species formerly used as an entheogen in Siberia.
context_section_description: That the Evenks of Central Siberia were not the only Tungusic people to use Physochlaina physaloides as a recreational drug is made plain in a work by Siberian explorer Peter Simon Pallas, first published in German, but more widely known in the French translation of 1793.
  After accepting a professorship at the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences offered him by Empress Catherine the Great, Pallas led an expedition lasting from 1768 to 1774, which took him from the central provinces of Russia far to the east - all the way to the lands beyond Lake Baikal. It was here in Dauria (a.k.a. "Dahuria") - where the eastern extremity of Mongolia meets southern Siberia and western Manchuria - that he encountered, not only the Daur people for whom the region is named, but also certain Tungusic tribes who prepared a curious intoxicating drink. The following passage is translated from de la Peyronie’s French edition of 1793.
  1772. 31 May. The road to Chindanturuk never leaves the river (Onon) with its charming bed. The banks presented a delightful prospect of Spring flowers...At a distance of twenty-seven versts from the stream Udagataï, one finds rising from the shallows of the river a great steep and craggy rock which the Tungus call Kiroé ("crane" in their language), lying near to the [ junction of the Onon with the river] Borsa...I observed growing among the nettles which surround the base of this rock the Physalis-like henbane (Hyoscyamus physaloides). The Tungus make use of its narcotic seed; they roast it like coffee and drink the decoction with their dinner.
  A second account (later in publication date than the Reisen... but earlier than the Voyages...) of the relevant part of Pallas's expedition by an anonymous anthologist of eighteenth century travel writing provides some further details absent from the French translation and derived possibly from Pallas's original German text.
  The lowlands lead onward to the outpost of Udagatai, and, farther yet to Chindanturuk, where one sees growing in abundance, beneath the nettles which grow beside the rocks, Hyosciamus physalodes [sic], a rare plant, the intoxicating seed (which ripens toward the end of July) of which the Tungus roast thoroughly in a frying pan, as one roasts coffee, and boil to make a beverage which they drink with their dinner.
  The question naturally arises as to which Tungusic people (or peoples) it was that Pallas encountered in Dauria. The Daurs themselves are speakers of the Mongolic language Daur (a.k.a. Dagur), but there are three Daurian ethnic groupings of Tungus affiliation, namely the Oroqen, Solon and Hamnigan (spelled also "Khamnigan"). These three have all been considered subgroups of the Evenks, but the Solon and, more especially the Khamnigan have interacted closely with the Mongolic Daur, Buryat and Khalkha peoples to the extent that they are ethnically quite distinct from the Evenki of the Yenissei, encountered by Gmelin.
  Scholar of eastern Asiatic languages Professor Juha Janhunen of the University of Helsinki is of the opinion that the Khamnigan (with whom he has personally undertaken fieldwork) are of Mongolic rather than Tungusic ethnic affiliation and that, of the remaining two groups (Oroqen and Solon), the Oroqen are the closest to the Evenki proper (which group includes the Evenki of the Yenisei basin). If this is indeed the case, then it may have been the Oroqen who were preparing a narcotic drink from roasted Physochlaina seed, assuming that Physochlaina use was a peculiarly North Tungusic culture trait - as manifested also in the brewing of Physochlaina beer by the Evenki of the Yenisei.
  There remain questions concerning the Tungus "coffee" itself: to guess at its effects one would need to know the average tropane alkaloid content of seeds and also to what extent - if any - the roasting or dry-frying of this seed would diminish such content.
  A comparison of Gmelin's vivid description of the effects of the Yeniseian Physochlaina beer and such meagre information as is given in Pallas's account of the Physochlaina "coffee" of Dauria is instructive
caption: 18th century Prussian botanist, zoologist and ethnographer Peter Simon Pallas, the first to document Daurian Tungus use of the seed of Physochlaina physaloides to brew a narcotic "coffee".
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