Ignatius Bean

Ignatia amara syn. Strychnos ignatia

Ignatius Bean St. Ignatius Bean Parts used Uses Habitat and cultivation

Ignatius bean is a climbing shrub or small tree that reaches lengths of more than 60 feet. Its flowers are greenish white and covered with small silky hairs. The fruit, which grows as wide as five inches, contains yellow pulp and as many as 40 hard, oval seeds.

PARTS USED

Seed, root.

USES

Filipinos traditionally wore the seeds of the Ignatius bean as amulets to protect themselves from disease. Jesuits brought the plant from the Philippines to Europe in the 17th century and, it is believed, named it ignatia, or St. Ignatius bean, after the founder of the Jesuit order, Saint Ignatius of Loyola. The fruit has been called monkey apple because monkeys sometimes eat it. In Java and Malaysia the seeds were extracted and used as dart poisons for blowguns and in curare.

Ignatius beans were frequently used as a cheap strychnine substitute for Strychnos nux vomica, because they have similar actions and alkaloidal composition. Once recommended as a remedy for cholera, Ignatius bean is used to treat fever and acute emotional and mental afflictions such as hysteria, insomnia, and depression. Ignatius beans are used chiefly as a homeopathic remedy, administered in very small doses because of extreme toxicity. Improper dosage-internal consumption of as little as a fraction of an ounce - can result in muscle spasms and painful convulsions and even death by asphyxiation.

Other medical uses
Homeopathy.

HABITAT AND CULTIVATION

Ignatius beans are found throughout southeast Asia and are especially common in the Philippines and in Vietnam.