Molecules of Witchcraft

From the mid-1300s to the late 18th century, hundreds of thousands of Europeans were burned at the stake, hanged, or tortured as witches by their own people.  Though the accusers were of a variety of sorts and backgrounds, it was mostly elderly or widowed women that had been accused of witchcraft.  Alleged witches were easily convicted, as little evidence was required for one to be found guilty, and occasionally the accused would admit to witchery, even before feeling necessitated to do so by the torture methods used by the courts to elicit confessions.  The driving force behind both the discrimination and as to why some falsely confessed, may be explained by a group of molecules called alkaloids (plant compounds that have one or more nitrogen atoms).  As part of folklore culture, herbs were often used as remedies for sickness and for other uses, one being to achieve a high.  Women in the Middle Ages lived a hard life, so to get high off of herbs every so often was a great relief.  The method used to obtain the high was to rub greases and ointments on their skin, which would lead to a night of hallucinations, returning them to a normal state in the morning.  The use of such ointments as mandrake, belladonna, and henbane extracts (all alkaloids), may have led them to believe that they were actually witches, having thought to have experienced acts of witchcraft such as flying on a broomstick and dancing with demons.  This explains the false confessions as well as why it was mostly women who were accused.

Another group of alkaloid molecules may have even been responsible for the witch-hunts themselves.  Compounds such as ergotamine, ergovine, and LSD, all derivatives of the lysergic acid molecule, are known to cause ergotism, whose symptoms include convulsions, seizures, diarrhea, lethergy, manic behavior, and hallucinations among other things.  As ergotism had struck many towns seemingly at random, many believed that their town was bewitched if some of the townsfolk experienced ergot poisoning, though we now know that ergotism is caused by fungus growth on crops in damp conditions.  The symptoms of the ergot poisoning itself, such as the manic behavior and the hallucinations, may have led the accusers to believe that they had witnessed their neighbor engage in witchcraft, or that they were under a curse of some sort.  Though the influence of alkaloids during the witch-hunts is just a hypothesis, this group of molecules did have the potential to cause the mass hysteria that led to the deaths of countless accused witches, which would forever alter the course of human history in Europe and abroad.

Women accused of being witches were sometimes burned at the stake if not hanged or drowned.