MANDRAKE TOXICITY - A CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY

A 31-year-old man ingested an unknown amount of mandrake plant purchas ed at a local health food store and came to the emergency department w ith severe nausea and vomiting. He was hospitalized overnight but reco vered uneventfully without obvious adverse systemic effects. This plan t was almost certainly Podophyllum peltatum based on chromatographic i dentification of podophyllotoxin in a sample. However, the patient had mistakenly believed he was taking the anticholinergic and hallucinato ry plant Mandragora officinarum, which is also known as mandrake. Othe r users of herbal substances and authors of the medical literature hav e also confused these 2 versions of mandrake. Given the growing popula rity of alternative therapies, physicians should understand the distin ction between these substances and should be aware of the medical effe cts of other commonly used herbal remedies.