The Trustees of the British Museum
Silphium plant shown on a silver drachm, c. 460 BC
A plant that played an important role in ancient medicine and everyday life disappeared centuries ago, leaving scientists with many questions.
O a sylph from Cyreneor silphion, was a Libyan plant famous for its use in contraception, medicine, and commerce. Their disappearance remains a historical mystery, and scientists continue to search for possible surviving descendants.
The Roman leader is said to have Julius Caesar kept a reserve of this plant in the treasury. The writer Pliny the Elderstated that the Roman emperor Nero possessed the last known specimen of the plant. Some researchers also suggest that excessive demand, driven by the use of extramarital sex among Roman elites, may have contributed to its extinction.
According to , the plant was used as contraceptive and abortifacientas well as for medicinal, food and cosmetic purposes. Its properties made it one of the most precious herbs in Greco-Roman antiquity.
Before the Romans, the Greeks also used silphium. They received it as tribute from Libyan tribes who lived with the plant and knew the appropriate methods for harvesting and preparing it. The Greeks took advantage and explored this indigenous knowledge, creating a market for this product and satisfying existing demand.
In Greek-Roman medicine, silphium was considered a food “flatulento“, capable of freeing the body from obstructions that were believed to cause various health problems. It was seen as a true miracle herbused to treat multiple diseases, including tumors and wild dog bites.
As climate change and desertification from the north coast of Africa could have contributed to the plant’s extinction. Although the Romans believed that silphium had disappeared by the 1st century AD, it is possible that it continued to be used and consumed locally until the 5th century AD.
Several attempts have been made to identify remnants of silphium in the world today, but researchers didn’t find any surviving specimen. Furthermore, the plant may have been a hybrid that reproduced asexually, which would make its propagation and cultivation difficult.
In 2021, a species called Druid’s sceptre in the vicinity of ancient Greek settlements in Anatolia, in present-day Türkiye. This species has similarities with ancient representations of silphium, and it is possible that seeds from Libya arrived in the region and survived to this day.
However, as long as seeds of the ancient plant are not found in properly dated archaeological contexts, it won’t be possible test this hypothesis conclusively.
