What is Mandrake?

Mandrake is a plant of the Nightshade family used primarily for its anesthetic and allegedly magical properties. It is closely related to the deadly night shade or Belladonna and can cause delirium and hallucinations if it is used in sufficient quantities. It is also said that Mandrake acts as a fertility aid for women. There are four species that belong to the family Mandragora all with relatively similar properties. Its use as a drug has been documented already 200 BCE when the besieged Carthaginian gave the attacking Roman soldier Mandrake wine to kill them in their stunned state. It is also an ancient anesthetic that is used before various operations to anestrate or sit patients. In this context, it was usually inhaled.

Mandrake has long had mystical connotations, both because of its narcotic effect and because of the appearance of its root, which is said to resemble man. According to the folklore, the humanoid root shouts when it is pulled out of the ground, and the man whoErý hears that he will be deaf, become mad or in more extreme versions of the legend, pad. Subsequently, sophisticated techniques for root harvest were invented; One of the most famous includes the filling of the ears with wax and deceiving the dog to pull out the root, keeping the distance so that the dog dies instead of a harvester. Another spooky legend surrounding Mandrake claims that the plant grows where the man was hanged.

Use Mandrake as a help of fertility is mentioned, some believe in the biblical book Genesis. In Chapter 30, Rachael, who was unable to conceive, allows his sister and wife to spend the night with her husband Jacob in Exchange for some roots found on Jacob's property. Soon after, Rachael will get pregnant. Some Bible scholars suggest that the plant in question is not Mandrake, but the word is a common English translation of the original Hebrew. In any case, it is traditionally believed that it increases female fertility, especially in the east.