Description
Mandrake root ~ 10gms
Mandrake is probably the most famous magical plant in Europe, known for both its medicinal and psychoactive properties and a wide range of legends and myths have been associated with it over the centuries. Known since ancient times, it appears sculpted in various Egyptian tombs and its healing properties are mentioned in the Eber papyrus (1500 BCE). Initially used as an amulet for good luck, as an aphrodisiac and to treat infertility, its use from the 1st century was as a sedative and anaesthetic in surgical procedures. Plyny gave his patients a piece of root to chew before operations and Dioscorides used mandrake wine as an anaesthetic and to ease pain. For centuries mandrake was associated with myths and magic, being one of the ingredients of the witches’ ‘flying ointments’ in the Middle Ages. According to an ancient legend, when the plant was uprooted it would scream, killing anyone who heard it. Therefore the gathering of the mandrake was carried out following elaborate rituals.
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