The morning after pill in Ancient Greece? Did it exist?

In another of our articles we already talk about the revolution that the pill meant, an invention that has undoubtedly helped women to live their sexuality with the same freedom, naturalness and pleasure as men.Today in Science Daily Online We want to discover that the morning after pill existed in Ancient Greece and, therefore, that it was a much older invention than we thought, that it already had prodigious efficacy.

Was there really something like the morning after pill in Ancient Greece?

There is evidence that a kind of morning after pill was used in Ancient Greece and in Rome, which had the same efficiency as that sold today.

In Greece there was a wild plant called Silfio (in Latin laserpicium ) and that only grew in the vicinity of the Greek city Cyrene (present-day Libya), a city founded around 632 BC Moreover, this metropolis prospered and grew thanks to the export of silfio.

The morning after pill in Ancient Greece? Did it exist?

Silver coin of Cyrene with a sheaf of Silfio

Although it had different culinary and medicinal uses, the Greeks used it mainly as our morning after pill or as abortive for its estrogenic properties .It could be administered orally or vaginally and if taken once a month as a tincture, served as a contraceptive . laser, an aromatic resin that was used for this purpose was extracted from the sphincter.

This plant was as quoted and enjoyed such prestige , that its image appeared even in the Greek currencies from the 6th century BC, the only testimony we have to know what the appearance of this plant was like, and its quotation would surely come because, as I leave constancy the great historian Pliny the Elder, This plant was almost impossible to grow and had strong roots and a stem with a thickness similar to that of asafetida-a plant that is thought to be very similar-.Deduces and what was your main problem? The price.

The morning after pill in Ancient Greece? Did it exist?

Plinio El Viejo

Since he could not cultivate, it was scarce and its cost was quite high, so that only rich and high-noble women could afford it, with which the rest of women used other methods much less effective or surgical intervention, with the risks involved in such an operation.

The overexploitation of the small area where it grew wild and the impossibility of being able to grow it made this plant become extinct in the 1st century AD

The effectiveness of the Silfio demonstrated today

To our surprise, research conducted with rats to which this substance has been supplied from current plants and with characteristics similar to Silphium, 3 days after mating, demu They have a contraceptive efficacy of 100% , something really incredible.

If you liked this article about the morning after pill in Ancient Greece, you may be interested in: curious history of contraceptives

Image: Loaded by Gardomir ~ commonswiki, Loaded by Bibi Saint-Pol, Loaded by Merlitti

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