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Mandragora caulescens
Mandragora caulescens, the Himalayan mandrake, is a perennial herbaceous plant in the family Solanaceae, native to the Himalayas and mountainous regions of Myanmar and south-west China. One of the differences from the other species of Mandragora is that it has a stem, whereas they are stemless. Like all species of Mandragora, it contains tropane alkaloids, making it toxic. It is used in traditional Chinese medicine.
All species of Mandragora contain highly biologically active alkaloids, tropane alkaloids in particular. The different parts of the plant contain different proportions and concentrations of alkaloids, with the roots generally having the highest concentration. Tropane alkaloids are potentially highly toxic. The roots of M. caulescens contain hyoscine and anisodamine, which are used medicinally in China. The dried roots of M. caulescens are used in Chinese herbal medicine, and in Yunnan and Xizang as a substitute for ginseng.
Mandragora caulescens is a "Sino-Himalayan" species, native to Nepal, northern India (including Sikkim from where it was first described), Bhutan, Myanmar, and south-west China (south-east Qinghai, west Sichuan, east Xizang (Tibet), and north-west Yunnan).
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Mandragora caulescens by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
