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apothecary

Mandrake

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As long as you don't mind pedants calling taxonomic changes...:P

I believe Mandragora genus was merged with Atropa not too long ago.

So M. officinalis becomes Atropa mandragora v. officinalis and autumnalis becomes A. mandragora v. autumnalis.

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who said? I know it USED to be in Atropa and was taken out of it and have not heard any reason why it should be back in Atropa.

references ? :P

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There used to be a paragraph on the mandrake page on wikipedia talking about the change. Couldn't find it now though.

botanical.com is still using A. mandragora and has this to say

The roots of the Mandrake are very nearly allied to Belladonna, both in external appearance and in structure. The plant is by modern botanists assigned to the same genus, though formerly was known as Mandragora officinalis, with varieties M. vernalis and M. autumnalis. According to Southall (Organic Materia Medica, 8th edition, revised by Ernest Mann, 1915), the root:

'contains a mydriatic alkaloid, Mandragorine (Cl7H27O3N), which in spite of the name and formula which have been assigned to it, is probably identical with atropine or hyoscyamine.'

Though it appears this information is maybe out of date, as Crouzel reported mandragorine is an isomer of atropine (rather than identical to).

So uh...yeah...nevermind :P

*goes back to hidey hole*

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There used to be a paragraph on the mandrake page on wikipedia talking about the change. Couldn't find it now though.

Wikipedia actually quite correctly refer to the name change the other way.

botanical.com is still using A. mandragora

Botanical is not a botany site, but a herbalist site. They are renowned to use obsolete names.

You're not the only one confused. Even Erowid got it wrong.

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check the product page for the mandrake, as I'm assuming it's supposed to be listed as Mandragora (as it is elsewhere and on the 'index' page, but

is spelt 'mandragoa' under the product name:

http://shaman-australis.com.au/shop/index....cPath=21_34_279

thanks, fixed.

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