[6] The name Physochlaina is a compound of the Greek words φυσα (phusa), 'bladder' / 'bubble' / 'inflated thing' and χλαινα ( chlaina ), 'robe' / 'loose outer garment' / 'cloak' / 'wrapper' – giving the meaning 'clad loosely in a puffed-up bladder' – in reference to the calyces of the plants, which become enlarged and sometimes bladder-like in fruit – like those of the much better known Solanaceous genera Physalis, Withania and Nicandra, from which they differ in enclosing, not berries, but box-like pyxidial capsules, like those of Hyoscyamus (see below).

This said, Abaev lists a second meaning (prevalent particularly in the Digor dialect) of the Ossetian word typpyr, namely 'kurgan' (burial mound), in which the primary sense of 'swelling' is applied specifically to a swelling in the landscape i.e. a tumulus or small artificial hill.

[25] Royal Botanic Gardens Kew Science Plants of the World online, however, accepts also: Perennial herbs, differing in their type of inflorescence – a terminal, cymose panicle or corymbose raceme – from the other five genera of subtribe Hyoscyaminae within tribe Hyoscyameae of the Solanaceae.

They are well adapted for decorating borders in early spring'.In regard to the soil type favoured by wild populations, volume 22 of Linnaea (in surprisingly geological vein) provides the observation that Physochlaina orientalis is to be found growing on soils underlain by trachytes (volcanic rocks of a type notably rich in the chemical element potassium, a plant macronutrient essential for the production of flowers and fruit and, in a specifically Solanaceous context, the main ingredient of liquid feed for tomato plants).

[39] Corroboration of the possession of antiseptic properties by Physochlaina praealta was provided recently by the publication (in 2019) of a paper entitled (most unhelpfully in this context) Isolation of Anemonin from Pulsatilla wallichiana and its Biological Activities.

[40] The results of the tests for antibacterial activity revealed that the extract exhibited the highest percentage inhibition against Staphylococcus aureus (68.54%), followed by Escherichia coli (10.04%), Bacillus subtilis (06.96%) and Salmonella typhi (01.04%) while it remained inactive against Shigella flexneri and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

It is used currently as an "antibacterial", an analgesic, an anticonvulsant, an antipyretic, an anti-parasitic, against anthrax, against encephalitis, against glanders, against parasitic worms of the skin and the gastrointestinal tract against tumors and to treat sexual unresponsiveness, aspermia, abdominal pain and hypothermia.

[37][46][47] Intrepid German naturalist, botanist and geographer Johann Georg Gmelin records in his Reise durch Sibirien of 1752 a remarkable account of the intoxicating properties of Physochlaina physaloides, which bears repetition in its entirety.

When they had returned to their senses, they named these falls The Drunken Rapids and, because one suffers a headache after such a debauch, they named the falls that they encountered next Pokhmelnoy Porog [ Russian: Похмельной Порог: The Hungover Rapids ].His curiosity aroused, Gmelin investigated, and discovered an attractive new species: This account has given me the opportunity to reveal the identity of the beautiful plant involved, which was unknown to any botanist before me: Hyoscyamus foliis integerrimis calicibus inflatis subglobosis [Botanical Latin: 'The Henbane having simple, untoothed leaves and (fruiting ) calyces that are more or less round and inflated' [ i.e. like those of a Physalis ]] Linn.

He pictures continually to himself the cruellest and most dreadful imaginings of an inevitable death awaiting him, and, as it seems, all this fills him with despair, because his senses are withering away; thus, should one such drunkard go to step over a beam, he will take a great stride out of all proportion to the actual size of it, while another will see deep water in front of him [ where there is only shallow ] such that he dare not venture into it.In conclusion, Gmelin then adds, concerning the plant itself: The local inhabitants often use these roots when they want to play a prank upon each other.

[49]The first work devoted exclusively to recreational drugs to draw on Prévost's translation of Gmelin's account of Evenki Physochlaina use was A History of Tobacco with notes on the use of all Excitants currently known by Italian botanist Professor Orazio Comes, written in French and published in Naples in 1900.

[50] Comes's summary of the Prévost translation was included by German Botanist Carl Hartwich in his classic and influential work of 1911 Die Menschlichen Genussmittel (= 'The Pleasure-drugs of Mankind'),[51] which, in turn, was quoted by 21st century expert on hallucinogens Dr. Christian Rätsch in his Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants of 2005.

After many adventures, including the encounter with Physochlaina physaloides on the Angara river near Yeniseysk, Professors Gmelin and Müller, student Krasheninnikov and many other expedition members gathered at Vitus Bering's base at Yakutsk.

The phenomenon, described in similar terms by Gmelin and Krasheninnikov in their respective accounts, is that of macropsia - whereby small objects are perceived as being enormous - a symptom of (among other conditions, both natural and self-inflicted) the use of psychoactive drugs[54] (see also dysmetropsia).

The muscles are controlled by an uncoordinated activity of the nerves themselves, uninfluenced by and unconnected with the higher willpower of the brain, and thus it has occasionally happened that persons in this stage of intoxication found themselves driven irresistibly into ditches, streams, ponds and the like, seeing the impending danger before their eyes but unable to avoid certain death except by the assistance of friends who rushed to their aid.

Furthermore it is possible that the phrase 'he speaks continually without knowing what he is saying' which has crept into the Prévost ' Histoire générale... ' version of Gmelin's account may have influenced von Langsdorff's description of the compulsive babbling of the Amanita-intoxicated individual.

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,[57] but more widely known in the French translation of 1793.

[58] 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.

"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.

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.

[67] Chinese équipe have recently studied Physochlaina physaloides for its alkaloid content, finding in the whole plant the following tropane compounds: cuscohygrine, anisodamine, L-hyoscyamine, atropine, scopolamnine, scopolamine-N-oxide, α-belladonnine, β-belladonnine.

The plant cultivated under the name Physochlaina orientalis (referable possibly to P. physaloides – see below) is a rhizomatous, clump-forming, perennial, up to 45 cm in height, bearing attractive, funnel-shaped flowers of a pale purplish-blue, followed, in fruit, by pubescent calyces much longer than the capsules enclosed.

[74]] In the wild, near the historic, Turkish, silver-mining town of Gümüşhane (on the westernmost edge of its range) P. orientalis is frequently to be found growing near cave mouths and in rock crevices[75]- exactly the type of microclimate referenced by Marschall von Bieberstein in his original description of 1808, where he speaks of ' grottos near the acidic mineral springs of Narzana (= Narzan Baths, Kislovodsk, North Caucasus) '.

Flora Iranica is in agreement on this range of occurrence for P. orientalis, adding also to the list of territories not only north-western Iran but also 'Syr Darja' – the latter being referable to lands traversed by the river Syr Darya and, more especially the historic Syr-Darya Oblast and hence modern Uzbekistan.

In this context, it may be noted that Phillips and Rix include in their work on garden perennials a photograph of a second, (not universally accepted) Physochlaina species of unequivocally Central Asian provenance, namely P. alaica Korotk.

appears to designate an area of natural beauty and Iranian domestic tourism encompassing a peak (37°9′N 44°47′E) which forms the tripoint of Iran, Iraq and Turkey, lying some 50 km from the city of Urmia.

[77] An early botanical illustration - possibly the first such to be made - of Physochlaina physaloides is that engraved by Nicolaas Meerburgh (then hortulanus (director) of the Hortus Botanicus Leiden) for his work of 1775 Afbeeldingen van zeldzaame gewassen (= 'Pictures of Rare Plants').

p. 258- text incorporating the description in Species Plantarum and deriving from volume one of Linnaeus's earlier work Hortus Upsaliensis of 1748, in which a binomial was assigned the plant discovered by Gmelin [see section above].

Furthermore the flowers of the specimen display exserted pistils and stamens and the leaves have pointed tips and sinuate margins - all of which suggest an identity compatible more with the Caucasian Physochlaina orientalis rather than the Siberian P. physaloides.

If Physochlaina orientalis were to be demoted to a subspecies of P. physaloides, one would be left with a single, rather variable species, found over an immense range stretching thousands of kilometers from Eastern Turkey through Iran, Central Asia, China and Mongolia all the way to southeastern Siberia.