Mandrake
© Conrad Richter
Ancient herb of sorcerers and witches makes a comeback as a sex booster.
The Mediterranean can fairly be called a cradle of herbs because so many favourite herbs are from there; herbs such as thyme, oregano, rosemary, sage and hundreds more hail from the same sun-drenched countries that gave us Homer, Caesar and Jesus.
But the lands of olives and grapes are also home to a potent herb with a dark and secret history going back thousands of years.
Among the favourite magic herbs of sorcerers and witches was Mandragora officinarum, the European mandrake, a fascinating stemless plant with a subterranean mass of thick roots 3-4 feet deep. Often confused with American mandrake or mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) growing in cool forests from Canada to Texas, the European variety is completely different, sharing only the moniker and vaguely similar fleshy yellow-orange edible fruits. Its branched roots uncanningly resemble the human form with a head, arms and legs, adding to its mystique as a tool of magic for sorcerers and witches.
In ancient times the roots were used as an anesthetic and to treat melancholy, but their strong emetic and purgative properties make the roots quite poisonous to use. The fruits are much safer to use.
In the Jezreel Valley of Israel, a sweet alcoholic liqueur made with the fruits has been hailed a sensational new aphrodisiac that is doing wonders to increase sperm counts, cure impotence, and heighten female interest in sex. Stories abound of how mandrake has transformed the sex lives of Israelis. One young man was quoted as saying, "We just can't stop making love. We've been doing it so much we can hardly stand."
A Christian Arab told a local pharmacist and merchant of mandrake liqueur, "You'd be surprised how good I am now" after complaining of impotence two months earlier. Another customer saw his sperm counts double after a few weeks of mandrake use.
Even the Bible gets into the act: in Genesis there is the passage, "And Jacob came out of the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him, and said, Thou must come in unto me; for surely I have hired thee with my son's mandrakes. And he lay with her that night." Shakespeare too alludes to mandrake's sensual qualities when Cleopatra says, "Give me to drink mandragora/That I may sleep out this great gap of time my Antony is away."
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