Physostigmine, also called eserine, is an alkaloid obtained from the Calabar or ordeal bean. The Calabar bean once was used by native tribes of West Africa as an "ordeal poison" in trials for witchcraft, in which guilt was judged by death from the poison, innocence by survival after ingestion of a bean. Ref: Taylor P. (2011). Chapter 10. Anticholinesterase Agents. In L.L. Brunton, B.A. Chabner, B.C. Knollmann (Eds), Goodman & Gilman's The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics, 12e.