| Calabar bean. |
| the violently poisonous seed of an African climbing plant, Physostigma venenosum, of the legume family, the active principle of which is physostigmine. |
Cal·a·bar bean  (kāl'ə-bär)  n. The poisonous seed of a tropical western African woody vine (Physostigma venenosum) in the pea family, which has been used as an ordeal poison and is the source of the drug physostigmine. Also called ordeal bean. [After Calabar, a town of southeast Nigeria.] |
| ordeal bean n. See Calabar bean. [So called from its alleged use as a test for witchcraft.] |
Calabar bean Cal·a·bar bean (kāl'ə-bär)
n.
The poisonous seed of a tropical western African woody vine in the pea family and source of the drug physostigmine.