Manna
Calabrian manna
- Known today as
- The dried sap of the manna ash, Fraxinus ornus, of Calabria and Sicily.
- Kind
- Plant, in 1 older authority
- Constituents
- mannitol, mannotriose and stachyose, fraxin
- Earliest authority here
- Pliny (AD 23/24–79)
- In other databases
- Plants of the World Online search · GBIF search · Wikidata search
Revised October 1, 2026: An older authority added from a text read in full. Version 1, first published September 25, 2026.
Manna: what was it used for?
The gentlest purge, for children, women with child, and the delicate.
Manna: what does modern science say?
Mannitol, a mild osmotic laxative still used in medicine, takes its name from it.
Pharmacognosy & Toxicology
- Constituents
- mannitol ChEMBL40–60 per cent of the dried exudate
- mannotriose and stachyoseoligosaccharides
- fraxin ChEMBLa coumarin
- Mechanism
- The dried sap of the manna ash, Fraxinus ornus, tapped in Sicily: its mannitol is not absorbed from the gut and holds water osmotically in the bowel, a gentle laxative, which is exactly how mannitol is still used intravenously to draw water from the brain.
- Toxic dose
- Safe; 20–60 g purges; wind and bloating in excess.
- Standing
- In the Italian and French pharmacopoeias into the twentieth century; mannitol itself is a WHO essential medicine.
- Wichtl, M. (2004). Herbal Drugs and Phytopharmaceuticals, 3rd ed., “Manna.” Standard reference work
- WHO (2023). Model List of Essential Medicines, “Mannitol.” Standard reference work
Constituent names open the compound’s record at PubChem, and “ChEMBL” beside a name opens its record at ChEMBL, the European Bioinformatics Institute’s database of bioactive molecules. Where a mechanism line was checked against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37, read 1 October 2026), the check is shown with the measured value and its source paper, or says plainly that nothing has been measured. Doses are as the references give them, for description only; this is not medical advice. Each source carries the result of its check against Crossref, PubMed, or the authority’s page: see Verification.
Manna: what lore surrounds it?
The tree’s common name is itself folklore: from about 1400, observers likened the sweet sap from its bark to the biblical manna that fed the Israelites in the wilderness, and the comparison stuck, naming the tree in English, Italian, and Spanish alike. Mannitol, the sugar alcohol first isolated from the sap, carries the name on.
Manna: what did the older authorities say?
- Pliny
- In his account of the frankincense harvest, Pliny names the grades of the gathered gum: the drop that has “hung suspended in globular drops is known to us as ‘male’ frankincense,” the most esteemed is “that which is mammose, or breast-shaped,” the Greeks call the large lumps stagonia and atomus and the smaller pieces orobia, and “the fragments which are broken off by shaking the tree are known to us as manna.” The word, in Pliny, is thus a grade of frankincense crumb, not the sweet exudation of the later pharmacies. He adds that drops are still found “which weigh one-third of a mina.”
Sources
- Grieve, M. (1931). A Modern Herbal. Read in part · the text read
- Wikipedia, “Fraxinus ornus.” Book, not indexed
- Pliny the Elder, Natural History 12.32, trans. J. Bostock & H. T. Riley (1855), Perseus Digital Library. Primary text
Verification
- Checked
- October 1, 2026
- Passes
- Every sentence read against its sources, in the pass over the remaining 343 entries
- The Standing line checked against the authority it names (EMA, WHO, FDA, CITES, Commission E)
- Every dated or regulatory claim checked by category across the database
- Each quotation from the older authorities checked word for word against the text, read in full
- Sources
- 5 cited: 1 read in part, 1 primary text, 2 standard reference work, 1 book, not indexed.
- Corrections
- None were needed.
What was checked, how, and what was found is set out on the Verification page. A checked source is one whose record was found; it does not make the entry medical advice.
Cite This Entry
Version 1 · first published September 25, 2026 · last revised October 1, 2026
- Chicago
“Manna.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified October 1, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/manna.
- MLA
“Manna.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 1 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/manna. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Manna. (2026, October 1). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 8, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/manna
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See Also
Sharing mannitol
Also in Pliny the Elder
Mistletoe in Pliny the Elder · Madonna lily in Pliny the Elder · Mithridate in Pliny the Elder · Madder in Pliny the Elder · everything Pliny the Elder names →
Drawing on the same sources: Grieve, Wikipedia, Wichtl
Marigold · Mallow and marshmallow · Masterwort and angelica · Mugwort · Mummy · Pilewort · Lungwort · the bibliography →
Nearby in the alphabet
Mandrake (of the nightshade family) · Marjoram and jasmine (Origanum majorana) · Man on horseback (long counted a good edible) · Marking-nut electuary (Semecarpus anacardium (note XLIV)) · Malmsey
Historical description, not medical advice.