Herb library · Herb · Mandragora officinarum
Mandrake (European)
The mandrake of the Bible and of ancient Mediterranean medicine, a low plant with a forked root and yellow fruit. Its root and leaves carry atropine-like poisons, and people still land in hospital after mistaking its leaves for greens.
Serious warning
Mandrake is poisonous. Its leaves and root contain atropine-like alkaloids that cause blurred vision, racing heart, hallucinations and delirium. Fifteen people in Spain were poisoned by mandrake leaves mixed into chard and spinach, six in Sicily, and two people in Crete spent a week in intensive care after a vegetable meal containing it.
Traditional use
Mandrake was an ancient painkiller and sleep-bringer in the Mediterranean and Middle East, and its forked, man-shaped root gathered many superstitions. In Genesis, Rachel asks Leah for her son's mandrakes. Tristram (1898) found the plant everywhere in Palestine and wrote that its fruit was still valued there in the belief, as old as Rachel, that eating it brings conception. Dafni and Böck (2019) count it among the five plants the Bible names directly as medicine.
What studies show
- Insufficient
Pain, sleep and fertility: no study of mandrake as a medicine in people exists, and its toxicity rules out testing it. Its alkaloids (atropine, hyoscyamine, scopolamine) are well-known drugs, used today in measured, purified doses.
Be careful of
Cautions
- NoteDo not take any part of the plant by mouth, and do not pick wild greens in the Mediterranean unless you are sure of them: mandrake leaves grow in a flat rosette that has been mistaken for edible greens.
- Note"Mandrake" also names the American mayapple, an unrelated poisonous plant. Know which one a product contains.
- PregnancyNever use it in pregnancy or while breastfeeding.
- Ask a clinicianIf anyone swallows any part of the plant, call Poison Control (1-800-222-1222 in the U.S.) or emergency services; the poisoning has a specific antidote given in hospital.
In scripture
Where the Bible names this plant, and which plant scholars think is meant.
Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to his mother, Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”
The Hebrew duda'im, "love-plants," is identified by Tristram (1898) as the mandrake, Mandragora officinalis (now M. officinarum), the plant on this page; he found it common across Palestine, its fruit ripening at wheat harvest as the verse says. H. B. Tristram, The Natural History of the Bible (1898), pp. 466–468 (opens in a new tab)
The mandrakes produce fragrance. At our doors are all kinds of precious fruits, new and old, which I have stored up for you, my beloved.
The Hebrew duda'im, "love-plants," is identified by Tristram (1898) as the mandrake, Mandragora officinalis (now M. officinarum), the plant on this page; he answers the objection that its smell is unpleasant by saying most people do not find it so. H. B. Tristram, The Natural History of the Bible (1898), pp. 466–468 (opens in a new tab)
Sources
- [Atropine poisoning by Mandragora autumnalis. A report of 15 cases] (Med Clin (Barc), 1990) — PubMed record (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026
- Six clinical cases of Mandragora autumnalis poisoning: diagnosis and treatment (Eur J Emerg Med, 2002) — PubMed record (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026
- A two cases clinical report of mandragora poisoning in primary care in Crete, Greece (Cases J, 2009) — PubMed record (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026
- Medicinal plants of the Bible-revisited (J Ethnobiol Ethnomed, 2019) — PubMed record (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026
- A Comprehensive Review on the Ethnopharmacology, Phytochemistry, Pharmacology, and Toxicology of the Mandragora Genus; from Folk Medicine to Modern Medicine (2021) — PubMed record (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026
Reviewed September 25, 2026.