When a center - senior brace decide to amend their sexual activity life , they spent a week in 2008 eating raw honey gather from near Turkey ’s Black Sea — and then ended up in the hospital with symptoms that mimicked heart flack . The culprit?Mad honey poisoning , a little - acknowledge destroyer that has bring down ancient armies and , in modern times , been rumored to have a hallucinatory effect that increases intimate performance .
Mad dearest is produced by bees that ingest the nectar ofRhododendron ponticumand other poisonous plants that grow in Japan , Nepal , Brazil , function of North America , Europe , and the eastern Black Sea region of Turkey . The course toxic sirup reportedly try more vitriolic than " normal " beloved , and the toxicity is stronger in fresh honey gathered in the springtime , when rhododendron are among the first plants to flower .
Mad honey is a razor’s - boundary substance that can go from intoxicate to lethal in just a few tablespoon . And because potency varies from hive to hive , there ’s no sure way to evidence when enough is enough . In the character of the couple who wound up in the emergency section , increasingly big doses of the toxically tinged honey have sharp inferior myocardial infarctions , adding to the lightheadedness , hypotension and going of consciousness they may already have experience with their first taste . The honey is so powerful that ancient armies used it as a weapon , and quite effectively , too .
" The ancient Greek commander Xenophon , who led his U. S. Army of 10,000 soldier from Persia back to Greece in 401 BC , prided himself on select respectable and dependable campsites in hostile territorial dominion , " state Adrienne Mayor , a research scholarly person in classic and history of skill at Stanford University . She ’s also the author of " The Poison King , " a biography of Mithradates of Pontus , and " Greek Fire , Poison Arrows & Scorpion Bombs , " a survey of ancient biological and chemical war . " [ Xenophon ] noted nothing unusual about the campsite in Pontus , on the Black Sea coast on northeast Turkey , but he did note ' an sinful number of swarming bee ' and said that his men presently discovered the hives and gorged on the sweet treat of wild honey . "
Xenophon register his intellection for posterity , and was " appalled when his soldiers suddenly behave like craze maniac and collapseden masse shot , " says Mayor . " His full United States Army was paralyzed and disable for days , totally vulnerable to possible foeman tone-beginning . "
Although Xenophon ’s army recovered before they were discovered and slain , the Roman world-wide Pompey was not so favourable , Mayor say . In 65 B.C.E. , during a war against King Mithradates of Pontus , Pompey and his troops journey through the same area where Xenophon ’s regular army had eaten the mad honey and the soldiers mirthfully dine on tantalizing gob honeycombs their foeman placed along their route . One thousand Roman soldiers were lurk and killed after being rendered inert by the toxic honey .
There are also instances of mad honey being used in George Herbert Mead as a way of stall entrench force . Mead , or honey wine-colored , is made by work dearest with piddle and then flavoring the mixed bag with fruits and spices . Two famed occurrences of mead made with mad dear hold place in the same region where the armies of Xenophon and Pompey once stall .
" In AD 946 , the Russian foes of Olga of Kiev fall down to a similar ruse when they accept several tons of Margaret Mead from Olga ’s allies , " says Mayor . " All 5,000 Russians were massacred where they had collapsed , reeling and mad . In 1489 , in the same part , a Russian army massacre 10,000 Tatars who had drunk many casks of mead that the Russians had on purpose depart behind in their abandoned camp . "
Mad honey , which bewilder — and in some cases , stillposes — a menace to outsiders unfamiliar with its potency , is treated otherwise by local and proponents . In Turkish polish , mad love is seen as a type of medicinal drug known asdeli bal , and is used in small amounts to treat hypertension , diabetes mellitus and stomach disease . In Nepal , the Gurung community use mad honey not only for its medicinal properties , but for its hallucinogenic properties as well .
The curious and determined have buy mad honey from internet sites or from shopkeepers and apiaries who surreptitiously sell the substance in regions where it is raise . Mad honey reportedly costsnearly $ 170 U.S. dollarsper pound sign , made more expensive both by its participating ingredient — grayanotoxin , which causes paralysis and breathing stoppage — and by the difficulty of obtaining it . In Nepal , for example , the hallucinatory beloved isharvestedby mass who rappel down craggy drop while chanting calming Christian Bible to swarms of bees .
Although dearest and Margaret Mead were among the only rude sweet in ancientness as resistless as candy , today ’s soldiers are presumably well - provide with candy bar and able to give up the temptation of constitute hives .
" sick honey could still be a plausible guerilla - style artifice of war [ today ] , " says Mayor . " It ’s easy to visualise a scenario where soldiers might accept gifts of food or booze from seemingly favorable host in alinement with foe hold off in ambush . One can imagine some situations where local people could adjust out influence nutrient or alcoholic drinks laced with toxic dearest . "
sound like a delicious , but baneful , Trojan horse . Or bee .
