by Silva Payne

Created on: June 27, 2009   Last Updated: July 01, 2009

The history of the mandrake plant is well documented, with examples found in many old and ancient texts. Mandrake is the common name for the Mandragora genus of plants from the Solanaceae family. It is related to the nightshades, and contains hallucinogenic and poisonous chemicals. It is native to southern and central Europe, though its use is more geographically widespread.

The roots of the plant are often in two sections, side by side, that resemble human legs. Above ground, the plant displays a rosette of wrinkled, long oval leaves that grow to 18 inches long. The flower branches grow up from the base, bearing one white flower to each branch, which in turn develop into fleshy orange-red berries that look somewhat like small tomatoes. All parts of the plant are toxic.

Mandrake is mentioned at least twice in the Bible. In Genesis 30:14, Rachel asks Leah for some of the mandrake that Leah's son Reuben had gathered out in the fields. It is thought that mandrake was used as an aphrodisiac in ancient times, and Rachel was so desperate for the plants that she agreed to Leah sleeping with Rachel's husband, Jacob, as a payment. Mandrake are also referred to in Song of Solomon 7:13, again as an aphrodisiac, but this time by their scent and not ingestion.

Shakespeare was well acquainted with the plant and mentions it by it's common and Latin names four times in his plays. Each time it is in association with either drug-induced sleep or death. Machiavelli wrote an entire play in 1518 with The Mandrake as its title. The play revolves around Italian family corruption, where a man named Callimaco covets his elderly neighbour's beautiful young wife.

The neighbour longs for an heir, and Callimaco masquerades as a doctor to convince the neighbour to drug his wife with a mandrake draught to make her more fertile. The "doctor" then warns the neighbour that the first man to sleep with his wife after she takes the drug will undoubtedly die from the poison. Callimaco then dons another disguise and offers his services as the sacrifice, sleeps with the woman, and later reveals himself once the woman has fallen in love with him.

Almost all literary examples of mandrake being used or even considered for use revolve around it's supposed fertility and aphrodisiac properties. John Donne knew of the association when he penned the line "Get with child a mandrake root". The folklore surrounding the plant had not diminished by the twentieth century; D. H. Lawrence, John

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