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comment by veen
veen  ·  548 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: This miracle plant was eaten into extinction 2,000 years ago—or was it?

What do you think it’ll mean for birth control? I don’t know what’s in the pill right now but I can’t imagine it being outperformed by a plant? But I speak from ignorance here.





kleinbl00  ·  548 days ago  ·  link  ·  

So thing 1: silphium was an abortofacient, not a hormonal control agent. There's plenty o'abortofacients out there and all of them are beaten by modern pharmacology. That said:

    Analyses of the root extract identified 30 secondary metabolites—substances which, while they don’t contribute to the primary business of helping a plant grow or reproduce, nonetheless confer some kind of selective advantage. Among the compounds, many of which have cancer-fighting, contraceptive, and anti-inflammatory properties, is shyobunone, which acts on the brain’s benzodiazepine receptors and may contribute to the plant’s intoxicating smell.

You are talking about a plant that, if it's the one, is our most likely candidate for the original panacea. The Minoans and Egyptians had their own glyphs for silphium. It was the basic medicine for the entire Mediterranean from 3500BC until like 60 CE.

And again, IF (big if) Ferula wtfever has the makings of all the stuff the Minoans, Greeks, Romans, Cyreneans and everybody else used it for? It could be awesome or it could be a nothingburger.

I think it's more interesting that cuisine went from "zomg gotta have this herb that we make three different ways" to "sure substitute this stuff the locals call 'devil's dung' it'll have to do". It's like going from saffron to dandelions, if saffron root was something kings cooked with.

    "The Cyrenaic kind, even if one just tastes it, at once arouses a humour throughout the body and has a very healthy aroma, so that it is not noticed on the breath, or only a little; but the Median [Iranian] is weaker in power and has a nastier smell."

Dioscorides

Devac  ·  547 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I'm not sure about that 3500BC, but it was certainly widely known and treasured. Here's a fun quote:

Pisthetærus

Hand me the cheese-grater; bring me the silphium for sauce; pass me the cheese and watch the coals.

Heracles

Mortal! we who greet you are three gods.

Pisthetærus

Wait a bit till I have prepared my silphium pickle.

From Birds by Aristophanes

kleinbl00  ·  546 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Who can be? that said, IF:

- Minoan civilization is dated to 3500BC and IF

- the Minoans had a glyph for it and IF

- Alexander the Great was already looking for a substitute in 350 BC THEN

It's safe to assume the cultivation of silphium predates the Mycenians, and also likely to presume that it had attained permanent cultural importance with the Minoans, especially as the Minoans were matriarchal and had a much more driving need for effective birth control.