Molecules of Witchcraft

         As children grow up they are told so many legendary stories about witches, magic and creatures that are not of this world. Today we tend to not really believe in all this creatures, and think of them with even admiration and love. But these legends that now to us have originated the most adored and enchanted stories, in the past were reasons for brutalities on those who were thought to have these magical powers. In ancient times, people feared some healing and mysterious abilities some people seemed to have and a lot of people, mostly old women, were named as witches and burned at the stake, tortured and even hanged, all due to the fear of the unknown and baseless assumptions. However who would have thought that most of the blame behind all this accusations of witchcraft and discrimination would be in certain molecules, the molecules of witchcraft.

            In early years, before 1350, witchcraft was regarded as sorcery and was not feared and not seen as a crime if no harm was caused, it was simply a method to try and control nature for a personal interest. However around the middle of the fourteenth century this attitude completely changed when magic conducted outside of church was seen as work of Satan and people started to get charged for accusations of witchcraft. Accusations alone were enough as evidence, and the accused were subject to tortures and all their properties would end up being confiscated, action very profitable for the inquisitors that shared the assets with local authorities. From the accused people during this which-hunt terror, ninety percent were women which most of the times lived as herbalists using local herbs as medicines to cure diseases and relieve pain and often also produced potions and removed hexes. These women were then charged with making a pack with the devil, judged and killed in most cases. Only by the eighteenth century were the witchcraft executions ceased and this hunt fever slowly died.

            As mentioned previously most of the accused women were herbalists, people with the unknowingly ability to use plants molecules as healing factors, which made them be labeled as witches. This knowledge this women had about the healing abilities of plants was vital for innumerous pharmaceutical discoveries done in the future, however at this time, the fact that this ‘witches’ had the power to heal was seen as something dangerous and even feared. Well known plants like willow tree that has salicylic acid for aspirin, wild celery that can be used to prevent muscle pains, or ivy that could be used to prevent asthma symptoms are just some of the examples of the plants that these herbalists could use. There are even plants that had powerful effects on the heart, strengthing the heartbeat and reducing the heart rate. Molecules like digoxin from the foxglove, had this ability and would become very important years later in the treatment of congestive heart failure. Another factor that also led to the fear of witches was the assumption they had innumerous toxins at their hands from toad, which they could later use in their potions.

            A very well-known myth surrounding witches was their ability to fly, and as weird as it seems, some accused ‘witches’ had actually admitted to flying in brooms and being part of some sorts of sexual perversions thought to be characteristics of their evil rituals. There is a possibility that these confessions may have been given due to torture, but there is also a very big possibility that these women really thought they had done all this acts admitted and characteristic of witches. This belief the women had may well be an illusion produced by the alkaloid compounds found in certain plants. Alkaloids are natural fungicides, insecticides, and pesticides of plants, which usually have one or more nitrogen atoms attached to a ring of carbon atoms. These molecules tend to be very toxic, and in the human body they usually affect the central nervous system, and its derivatives in future years have started to be used in pharmaceutics as pain-relieving molecules and local anesthesia, since small quantities of alkaloids can be beneficial to humans being used for centuries as medicine. However some alkaloids may also be very lethal and poisonous, even simple alkaloids like coniine can be as dangerous as, the more complicated, strychnine. The alkaloids that could be to blame for the hallucinations and the flying stories are most probably atropine and scopolamine, which were the main alkaloids found in the components of the ointments that were thought to promote flying. This ointments used were made from extracts of mandrake, belladonna, and henbane, each one with its abilities. And the two alkaloids they contained had both antisecretory and euphoric properties important for the hallucinations that ‘witches’ though as reality. These women knew that the swallowing of these compounds could lead to death and would not produce the euphoric and intoxicating sensations they desired, so they instead applied the substances on their skin after dissolving them in fats and oils, and spreading these greases in places were the skin is the thinnest so that the absorption would be faster and more effective. These alkaloids would then create vivid illusions and the women would really believe all the things that had happened in the illusions, believing that they had flown. Normally women would resort to this substance in attempt to run away from their hard lifes, filled with poverty and the inability to control their own destiny, and eventually would end up being accused of witchcraft when the magic was actually in the magic of the compounds.

            In other situations different types of alkaloids were to blame for the accusation of more people as being witches. Certain alkaloids found in ergot fungus that would infect cereal grains, expecially rye, would create huge suffering for the whole population of a community, and the pains and misery that this alkaloids inflected on people were so great and so wide spread, that people started to see this as a dark spell casted by witches on the community. The accused ones, most of the times were old woman that were so power that they didn’t have the means to get cereal grains, and due to that were not infected by the alkaloid compounds and would not have the painful aftereffects, which made people think that they would be the ‘witches’ since they were the only healthy ones. This dreaded alkaloids, were ergonovine, and ergotamine which effects were innumerous and created a lot of suffering eventually leading to the development of gangrene which caused a terrible searing pain. Even though ergot alkaloids have caused a lot of pain to people and be to blame for the executions of innumerous ‘witches’, they have also been used as therapeutic substances and are used even today in the field of medicine, and also for another not so good purposes like the production of LSD, a derivative of this ergot alkaloids which is now one of the popular drugs for young people, and extreme cases have even lead to suicide due to its strong hallucinating abilities.

            The molecules of Witchcraft have for sure influenced history, as innumerous people were feared, discriminated and hunted with this belief that they were witches. However all these mysteries were not in the people, the whole power was in molecules that were capable to rise fear in entire nations and put people against their own. The authors perfectly show the readers the various historic events that these molecules have created and how much they have made people suffer. Today some of these molecules are still shaping our life.  The molecules from herbs may still be used for treatments today, and the hallucinogenic and therapeutic abilities of the alkaloids are also used in today’s world. It is obvious that today people won’t be executed due to beliefs of witchcraft by the use of these molecules, but they are still important.