BEN, in pharmacy, the name of an exotic purgative fruit, of the size and figure of a nut; whence it is also called the ben-nut, sometimes balanus myrepica, or glans unguentaria.
Naturalists distinguish two kinds of bens; viz. the great, ben magnum, which resembles the filbert, and is by some called avellana purgatrix, brought from America; and the small, ben parvum, brought from Ethiopia.