The mandrake has long had mystical connotations, both for its narcotic effect and for the appearance of its root, which is said to resemble a human being.
The mandrake is a plant of the Solanaceae family that is used mainly for its anesthetic and supposedly magical properties. It is closely related to nightshade or nightshade and can cause delusions and hallucinations if ingested in sufficient quantities. Mandrake also acts as a fertility aid for women. There are four species, all belonging to the genus Mandragora and all with relatively similar properties.
Mandrake plants were known to cause hallucinations.
A common ingredient in medicine and magic spells from ancient times to the Middle Ages, mandrake continues to be used today on a smaller scale. Its use as a drug is documented as early as 200 BC. C., when the besieged Carthaginians gave the invading Roman troops wine mixed with mandrake to kill them in their stupor. It is also an ancient anesthetic, used to anesthetize or sedate patients before various operations. In this context, it was normally inhaled.
Traditionally, mandrake is believed to increase a woman’s fertility.
The mandrake has long had mystical connotations, both for its narcotic effect and for the appearance of its root, which is said to resemble a human being. According to folklore, the humanoid root screams as it is ripped from the earth, and the human who hears it will go deaf, go mad, or, in more extreme versions of the legend, die. Consequently, elaborate techniques were invented to harvest the root; one of the best known involves stuffing the ears with wax and tricking the dog into pulling out the root, keeping a distance so that the dog dies instead of the harvester. Another macabre legend surrounding the mandrake claims that the plant grows where a man was hanged.
Mandrake has been used for sedation purposes.
The use of mandrake as a fertility aid is mentioned, some believe, in the biblical book of Genesis. In chapter 30, Rachael, who has been unable to conceive, allows her sister and her co-wife to spend a night with her husband Jacob in exchange for some roots she finds on Jacob’s property. Shortly after, Rachael becomes pregnant. Some Bible scholars suggest that the plant in question is not the mandrake, but the word is the common translation of the original Hebrew. In any case, it is traditionally believed that it increases the fertility of women, especially in the East.