[hanamizu]

During ancient times there was a plant, Silphium, that apparently used as a contraceptive and abortifacient. Whether or not it worked as advertised, it was harvested to extinction during the time of the Roman Empire.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Back in the 1980s was when soy protein was first widely marketed as a health food. At the time, my childbirth-educator ago told our class (all pregnant women) to avoid so-called herbal remedies and health foods that were naturally estrogenic because they could heighten the risk of miscarriage and also of breast cancer. The "no-no" list included soy, flax, red clover, alfalfa.

She also noted that there used to be a herbal remedy called Silphium which in classical antiquity was used for a wide variety of purposes including as a flavoring, a treatment for anxiety/depression and an aphrodisiac. She said we don't know exactly what that plant was --- maybe related to common flavoring herbs like fennel, celery or parsley --- but it was a big money-maker in the limited places it could be cultivated, and rather a "fad" health and beauty food for ladies of the rich and fashionable class.

She opined it was a good thing it (for some reason) went extinct, because if it had not, it could arguably have extincted the upper classes of Hellenistic North Africa.