[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.

[hanamizu]

In Greek/Roman times, the cities along the coast of North Africa that had the Silphium business, put an image of the plant on their coins. I guess it paid to advertise.