Mandragora

“Give me to drink mandragora…
That I might sleep out this great gap of time
My Antony is away.”
(Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra)

The word "mandragora" is derived from two Greek words together implying "hurtful to cattle". The Arabs knew the plant as "Satan's apple." Belying its sinister etymology, in classical antiquity mandragora officinarum was sometimes combined with alcohol before surgery. The combination afforded stricken patients a measure of analgesia if not anaesthesia.