Remarkable Remedies 233 - Mandrake 4 - Mandragora officinarum -1836
www.meisterdrucke.us/fine-art-prints/Panacre-Bessa/118605...
Mandrake: Mandragora officinarum
(Mandrake: Mandragora officinarum, pub. 1836. )
Panacre Bessa (1772-1846)
“In 1889, the active chemical in the mandrake plant was isolated and identified as mandragorine, later confirmed as a mix of alkaloids. The alkaloids are a family of potent chemicals, still widely used in pharmaceuticals and responsible for the hallucinogenic and sedative (and toxic) effects of many other plants, including deadly nightshade. Once chemists could create these substances in the laboratory, they no longer needed to identify plants or prepare drugs from source, and plant lore became redundant. Stripped of the enchanting imagery and mythology found in herbals, references to the mandrake in 19th-century pharmacopoeias were sadly diminished. The mandrake may have become just another botanical specimen, but its mystic past still holds an intoxicating allure.”
wellcomecollection.org/articles/YjCgGhIAACAA3SSh
Remarkable Remedies 233 - Mandrake 4 - Mandragora officinarum -1836
www.meisterdrucke.us/fine-art-prints/Panacre-Bessa/118605...
Mandrake: Mandragora officinarum
(Mandrake: Mandragora officinarum, pub. 1836. )
Panacre Bessa (1772-1846)
“In 1889, the active chemical in the mandrake plant was isolated and identified as mandragorine, later confirmed as a mix of alkaloids. The alkaloids are a family of potent chemicals, still widely used in pharmaceuticals and responsible for the hallucinogenic and sedative (and toxic) effects of many other plants, including deadly nightshade. Once chemists could create these substances in the laboratory, they no longer needed to identify plants or prepare drugs from source, and plant lore became redundant. Stripped of the enchanting imagery and mythology found in herbals, references to the mandrake in 19th-century pharmacopoeias were sadly diminished. The mandrake may have become just another botanical specimen, but its mystic past still holds an intoxicating allure.”
wellcomecollection.org/articles/YjCgGhIAACAA3SSh