Mel insanum

Mel insanum seu furens seu maenomenon, comestores ad inebrietatem vel incapacitatem stimulans, ab Apibus e.g. melliferis producitur qui flores grayanotoxinum continentes pabulantur, inter quas Eubotryoides grayana Iaponiae, Rhododendron arboreum Nepaliae, R. luteum et R. ponticum Turciae. Mel ibi in agris Trapezuntinis colligitur. In Nepalia ab Apibus dorsatis laboriosis producitur, a populis Gurung et Kulung colligitur.

Rhododendron ponticum, Turcicus mellis insani fons

Leucothoe grayana, Iaponicus fons mellis insani

Mercennarii Cyri iunioris qui cum Xenophonte post annum 401 a.C.n. Graeciam petebant et iuxta Trapezuntem Pontum Euxinum attingerunt mel insanum in itinere gustaverant:

Apum multa fuerunt alvearia, favis refertissima. Ex iis quicunque edissent statim mente commovebantur, iidemque et vomebant et excernebant, neque stare omnino quisquam poterat. Ac qui minus ederant temulentis simillimi reddebantur; qui plus aliquanto furentibus; multi etiam moribundis. Tam multi autem iacebant ut ab hostibus fusi viderentur, quae res effecerat ut plane omnes animum desponderent. At postero die eadem fere hora qua fuerant eo clamitatis genere affecti, resipiscere coeperunt. Tertio deinde ac quarto, ut hi solent qui medicamentum potarint, se erexerunt (Xenophon, Anabasis 4.8.20-21).

Illis rebus fidei dignis a testi oculari relatis, Strabo bellorum Mithridaticorum strategema haud dissimile describit:

Heptacometae tres Pompeii cohortes ontruncarunt dum montana pertransirent. Miscentes enim crateras furentis mellis, quod rami arborum ferunt, potos et mente alienatos adorti facile interemerunt (Strabo, Geographica 12.3.18).

Bibliographia

Rhododendron arboreum sub montibus Himalayis florens

Fontes antiquiores

• Procopius, De bellis 8.2.4 (de melle Trapezuntio)

Generalia

• Abdulkadir Gunduz, Suleyman Turedi, Hikmet Oksuz, "The Honey, The Poison, The Weapon" in Wilderness & Environmental Medicine vol. 22 (2011) pp. 182–184

De collectu

• Bethan McKernan, "Creating a buzz: Turkish beekeepers risk life and limb to make mad honey" in The Guardian (16 Ianuarii 2020)
• Mark Synnott, "Au Népal, la récolte à haut risque du miel hallucinogène" in National Geographic (2017)

De effectu

• "High on ‘mad honey’: intoxicated brown bear cub rescued in Turkey" in The Guardian (11 Augusti 2022)
• Gökhan Aksel et al., "Deli Bal Zehirlenmesi: Olgu Sunumu" in CausaPedia vol. 3 (2014) p. 790 ff.
• Ahmet Demircan et al., "Mad Honey Sex: Therapeutic Misadventures From an Ancient Biological Weapon" in Annals of Emergency Medicine vol. 54 (2009)
• Faik Koca, İlkay Koca, Ahmet Koca, "Poisoning by mad honey: A brief review" in Food and Chemical Toxicology (2007)
• Tirtha Man Shrestha et al., "Cardiovascular, psychiatric, and neurological phenomena seen in mad honey disease: A clinical case report" in Wiley Clinical Case Reports (2018)
• Hacer Gök Uğur et al., "Investigation of mad honey use as an alternative treatment in patients admitted to the pulmonary clinic: Ordu, Turkey example" in Brazilian Archives of Biology and Technology vol. 62 (2019)
• Selcuk Yaylacı et al., "Mad honey poisoning accompanied by hypotension and bradycardia" in Sakarya Medical Journal vol. 73 (2011)

Nexus externi

• "Miel hallucinogène" (11 Octobris 2018) apud Beely.fr