mandrake
Sign in to savethumb|upright|The so-called "female" and "male" mandrakes, from a 1583 illustration thumb|The flowers of [[Mandragora officinarum]] thumb|A carved mandrake root, 16th or 17th century (Wellcome Collection)
~19 min read
Encyclopedic overview
18 sectionsContents
- Nomenclature
- Toxicity and pharmaceutical use
- Ancient Greco-Roman pharmacopoeia
- Biblical
- Physiologus
- Josephus
- Folklore
- Magic and witchcraft
- Alraun
- Alraun-drak
- Main-de-gloire
- 19th century esoterica
- See also
- Explanatory notes
- References
- Bibliography
- Further reading
- External links
thumb|upright|The so-called "female" and "male" mandrakes, from a 1583 illustration thumb|The flowers of [[Mandragora officinarum]] thumb|A carved mandrake root, 16th or 17th century (Wellcome Collection)
A mandrake is one of several toxic plant species with "man-shaped" roots and some uses in folk remedies. The roots by themselves may also be referred to as "mandrakes". The term primarily refers to nightshades of the genus Mandragora (in the family Solanaceae) found in the Mediterranean region.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “mandrake” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.