​NEPENTHES (Gr. νηπενθές, sc. φάρμακον, a drug that takes away grief, from νη- privative, and πενθος, “grief”), an Egyptian drug spoken of by Homer in the Odyssey (iv. 221). Generally in the form “nepenthe” the name is given to any drug having a like property, and also occasionally to the herb or plant from which such a drug is produced. It is also applied to a special genus of plants, chiefly East Indian, known as the “pitcher-plants,” on account of the formation of the leaves.