Mandrake (Mandragora officinarum)
Flowers: June to August. Height: 10 – 50cm (4 – 20in).
Also known as Satan’s Apple, the mandrake may be the best known magical herb. Its root vaguely resembled a human with two arms and two legs and it was said that its scream, when pulled from the ground, could kill a man.
Medicinal: Translated into Anglo Saxon around the year 1000, a collection of medicinal remedies known as the Old English Herbarium, enjoyed wide popularity throughout Western Europe from the 5th century well into the Renaissance. It stated that mandrake was used for a range of conditions including for headache, sleeplessness, earache, inflammation, nerve spasms and pain associated with gout. The leaves had a cooling effect and were used in ointments while the roots were used for purging or cleansing.
Magic & Myth: “If anyone perceives any grievous evil in the home, take the mandrake plant to the center of the house – as much as one has of it – and it will expel all the evil”. The ‘body’ of the root could be used to treat someone seen as being insane or possessed by demons: “Take three pennies’ weight from the body of the mandrake plant and give it to drink as easily as the person is able in warm water. He will be quickly cured”. (From the ‘Old English Herbarium’ manuscripts from the 10th and 11th centuries).
