Exodus 12:8 >>
New American Standard Bible(©1995)
They shall eat the flesh that same night, roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
Here is an interesting comment from an ethnobotanist - in a class I am taking -
Many of the human body's powerful reactions are a direct response to
plant alkaloids, a class of chemical compounds most common in tropical
plants. Alkaloids, which are characterized by a molecular structure that
must include a nitrogen atom and at least two carbon atoms, have had a
major impact on every culture—if not every person—on the planet. They
provide everything from the kick in our morning coffee (caffeine) to the
addictive compounds in our most dangerous drugs (cocaine, heroin, and
nicotine), the toxic principles in some of the deadliest poisons (strychnine
and batrachotoxin), the analgesic effects in our most potent painkillers
(codeine and morphine), and the mental pyrotechnics in some of the most
powerful hallucinogens (mescaline and psilocybin).
The alkaline properties of alkaloids often give them a bitter taste, andthis astringent tang was frequently a clue for people the world over that a
plant had therapeutic properties. The concept of "bitters"—just about any
concoction that contained bitter-tasting plants and was said to have
healing properties—is found in medicinal systems from ancient Israel to
the colonial East Indies to modern Amazonia.
Were the "bitter herbs" used during the passover alkaloids and had some physical/mental effect?