Calabar bean Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun dark brown highly poisonous seed of the calabar-bean vine; source of physostigmine and used in native witchcraft
    ordeal bean.

WordNet

Definitions
  1. The of a climbing legumious plant (Physostigma venenosum), a native of tropical Africa. It is highly poisonous. It is used to produce contraction of the pupil of the eye; also in tetanus, neuralgia, and rheumatic diseases; called also ordeal bean, being used by the negroes in trials for witchcraft.

Webster 1913