Mandrake
Mandragora officinarum; alternative name Atropa mandragora
Family:
Solanaceae, Nightshade family
Where to find this herb:
A shady spot. It comes from the eastern parts of the Mediterranean region, but you can grow it outdoors in Northern Europe as well.
Part(s) used:
Root
Special constituents:
Tropanalkaloids, including scopolamine, atropine, hyoscyamine, mandragorine
Correspondance:
9(Crowley), 12 (Cunningham, Druehyld)
Use:
amulets, doll magic, sex magic, money magic, exorcism. Adds power to any herb mixture
Alruin 
Alrune Mandrake is probably the most famous of all witch-herbs. No other plant in the Western tradition has been attributed so much magical power! The root looks like a human (with a bit of imagination) and all kinds of doll magic has been made with mandrake roots. Find your mandrake under the gallows, where an innocent young man has urinated. If there are no gallows in your area, try to grow your own mandrake - it's not an easy task, though, as neither seeds nor the live plants are easily obtainable. If you do buy seeds, remember they need cold treatment before they will germinate. Sow them in a pot, cover with a net or similar (so that mice or birds don't get to them), and put outside in the autumn. Let the winter do its job. The seeds should germinate next spring. Alternatively, you can wrap the seeds in a wet cloth and put in the fridge for a few weeks - but beware of rotting.
If your mandrake is ready for harvest, do as follows: get hold of a black dog. Tie it to the mandrake and run for your life, whilst holding your hands over your ears. Or use earmuffs as in Harry Potter. The root will scream like hell as the dog pulls it from the ground, and the screams kill. When the screaming has stopped, bury the dog and go home with your mandrake. To ease the harvest, you can first pour urine or monthly blood over the plant - whether this sedates the plant or works as a sort of grease to get it easier out of the ground is not clear. Remember to wash the root after harvest. Let it dry, and then grease it a bit with fat from your nose - this makes it your own, special mandrake, which cannot be used or abused by anyone else.
Now you have it, it's very difficult to get rid of it again, should you wish so. It will always return to you! You cannot throw it away, give it away or burn it. Selling is a possibility, but only at a lesser price than the one you paid for it yourself.
Among the many magical powers of the mandrake is: protection, it drives away demons, gives riches (a coin placed next to it will double overnight), brings love and fertility. It also increases the power of any amulet.
The herb belongs to the nightshade family and contains several toxic alkaloids. Do not use it medicinally. Hippokrates did, against cramps and heavy depressions, and it has been used as a sedative - but with caution, as sometimes the patient didn't wake up again. Getting high on it is possible, but dangerous and in most cases reported not a pleasant affair. Get to know her in a different way than through ingestion! Keep her in your garden, care for her, and love and magick will flow your way effortlessly.
Are you searching the market for mandrakes, be aware that there are several varieties. The "real" mandrake flowers early in summer and is withered later in the season (but returns next year). Another variant is called autumnalis - this one should germinate easier, copes better with low temperatures and flowers in the autumn (thus the name). It can be obtained from Rühlemanns in Germany.
Alack, alack, is it not like that I,
So early waking, what with loathsome smells,
And shrieks like mandrakes' torn out of the earth
That living mortals, hearing them, run mad.
Romeo and Juliet ; Act IV, Scene 3