Plant hallucinogens as magical medicines
By Angelika Börsch-Haubold
Science in School, Issue 4 (2007)
Introduction:
“Were such things here as we do speak about?
Or have we eaten on the insane root
That takes the reason prisoner?”
- Shakespeare, Macbeth
Thus wonders Banquo, who witnessed, together with Macbeth, the witches’ sabbath and the first foretelling of their future at the beginning of Shakespeare’s play. The apparitions were either true – or a hallucination. By giving these two options in 1606, at the height of the witch-hunt in Europe, Shakespeare not only provides a reasonable interpretation of the state of bewitchment, i.e. of delirious dreams, but also points to a possible cause of this insanity. There are poisonous plants that, upon contact or ingestion, cloud our mind and make us experience unreal sensations. As the deplorable persecution of witches tells us, most Europeans unfortunately lacked such botanical knowledge at that time.
The “insane root” may well have been mandrake (Mandragora officinarum), the most famous magic plant of the Mediterranean, sold at high prices in markets north of the Alps. Since the root can resemble a human body, mandrake was believed to contain a spirit that brings fortune and guards against evil those who own or carry the root. However, it was a dangerous business to dig up the plant, as it would issue a deadly shriek when taken from the earth. For this purpose, people were advised to fasten a dog to the half-exposed root and let the animal draw the plant out, a ritual that is often depicted in medieval books (left). Hundreds of years later, Goethe’s Mephistopheles makes fun of this superstition: ‘There they stand and marvel, not believing in the precious find; one drivels of mandrake, the other of the Black Dog.” Goethe, Faust II, Act I).
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