Banj

Physicians and scientists appear to have been by and large consistent in their use of banj for henbane. 'AH b. Rabban at-Tabari, in the middle of the ninth century, speaks of three kinds of banj, of which the white one was in use, apparently referring to henbane.

Drugs feature in the Nights and other specimens of popular fiction in two contexts . First, banj (either henbane or hashish) and opium are rather naïvely called upon by the storyteller as a kind of Mickey Finn, or early form of chloroform, available for the use of villains.

[…] marid named Zu‘azi‘, to whom he gave a dirham’s weight of volatile banj. ‘Go to Isbanir,’; he told him, ‘and make for Gharib’s palace in the shape of a sparrow. Wait until he falls asleep and there is no one else there; then take the banj and put it in his nostrils, after which you are to bring him to me.’

1992, Krishna Murti Gupta, Mirabehn, Mira Behn, Gandhiji's Daughter Disciple: Birth Centenary Volume Whereas when they pass down slowly deep into the soil, they replenish the springs and river sources which are of such vital importance to agriculture in the dry season But why are the Banj forests disappearing so fast?

While chir pine had better growth yield than banj oak. the dry mass in both the species increased with the increasing nutrient and moisture status of soil. Response breadth values were wider for chir pine than banj oak on each of the nutrient and moisture gradient.

Banj oak on risers also had significantly higher stem density (P<0.0001, P< 0.0001), height (P<0.0001, P<0.0001), and diameter (P=0.00324, P<0.0001) than chir pine growing on the flats and risers, repsectively. ^([sic])

Banj (Quercus leucotrichophora) is the most common oak, while chir (P. roxburghii) is the dominant pine. […] In a given watershed, chir pine generally occupies ridge tops, southern aspects and is more common in wide valleys, while banj dominates the base of slopes, northern aspects and narrow valleys.

The total soil carbon across all the forest types ranged from 166.2 to 240.7 tonnes per hectare, the highest being in the dense mixed banj oak forest of Dhaili, which is located at the base of the slope, and the lowest being in the degraded […]