Mandrake Mandragora officinarum

Mandrake (Mandragora officinarum). Reprinted with permission from Harner MJ. (1973). The role of hallucinogenic plants in European witchcraft, in Hallucinogens and Shamanism. Harner MJ, ed. London Oxford University Press. 

Tropane alkaloids, principally hyoscyamine and hyoscine, are also found in two other medicinal plants, scopolia and mandrake, but these plants find little current use. Scopolia (Scopolia carniolica Solanaceae) resembles belladonna in appearance, though it is considerably smaller. Both root and leaf materials have been employed medicinally. The European mandrake (Mandragora officinarum Solanaceae) has a complex history as a hypnotic, a general panacea, and an aphrodisiac. Its collection has been surrounded by much folklore and superstition, in that pulling it from the ground was said to drive its collector mad due to the unearthly shrieks emitted. The roots are frequently forked and are loosely likened to a man or woman. Despite the Doctrine of Signatures, which teaches that the appearance of an object indicates its special properties, from a pharmacological point of view, this plant would be much more efficient as a pain-reliever than as an aphrodisiac. 

MANDRAKE -- Mandragora officinarum. L. Family Solanaceae (Potato family). 

Harvested when plant in flower, mid-summer. Root collected in autumn ground leaves are collected after flowering season. Mandrake Mandragora officinarum... 

Example Plant alkaloids can be identified from DESI mass spectra of seeds, leaves, flowers, or roots. Here seeds of deadly nightshade Atropa belladonna) were subjected to DESI for the identification of their principal alkaloids atropine and scopolamine (Fig. 13.6) [13]. (Atropine is the name of the racemic mixture of (R)- and (S)-hyoscyamine. It is a tropane alkaloid also extracted from jimsonweed Datura stramonium), mandrake Mandragora officinarum) among other plants of the Solanaceae family.) The inset in Fig. 13.4 shows tandem mass spectra of the ions at m/z 290 and 304, thereby confirming them as corresponding to protonated hyoscyamine and scopolamine, respectively. The confirmation of the ion at m/z 304 as [M+H] ion of scopolamine was obtained by conparing the tandem mass spectrum with that of the standard alkaloid. 

A. Alkaloids 1. Belladonna-type solanaceous tropane alkaloids [Atropine (1), (—)-Hyoscyamine (2), Scopolamine ((—)-Hysoscine)(3)] Atropa belladonna L. (belladonna), Datura metel L., D. stramonium L. (jimson weed), Hyoscyamus niger L. (henbane), Mandragora officinarum L. (European mandrake), and other solanaceous species Anticholinergics (parasympatholytics)... 

The terms mandrake and mayapple are used synonymously in the United States, being the plant species Podophyllum peltatum [of the plant family Podophyllaceae], which contains the toxic agent podophyUotoxin, which apparently has an anticancer or cancerostatic action [Hoffman, 1999, p. 81]. However, in Europe the mandrake is the species Mandragora officinarum of the family Solanaceae and contains belladonna-type alkaloids, namely, tropane or atropine alkaloids that include scopolamine and hyoscyamine. These are noted to have an anticancer action [Hoffman, 1991, p. 144]). 

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