Silphium
Latin laserpicium; its juice, laser
- Known today as
- An extinct plant of Cyrene in Libya, probably a giant fennel (Ferula).
- Kind
- Plant, in 2 older authorities
- Constituents
- unknown, ferulic and umbelliferone derivatives
- Earliest authority here
- Cyrene
- In other databases
- Plants of the World Online search · GBIF search · Wikidata search
Silphium: what does modern science say?
Extinct since antiquity, probably from overharvesting and grazing; a Turkish Ferula has recently been proposed as a survivor.
Pharmacognosy & Toxicology
- Constituents
- unknownthe plant is extinct, or unidentified
- ferulic and umbelliferone derivativesif, as argued, it was a Ferula
- Mechanism
- The laser of Cyrene vanished in the first century; its nearest surviving relatives, asafoetida and other giant fennels, are resinous carminatives with sulfur compounds. The contraceptive reputation (Riddle) rests on the resin of related Ferula species reducing fertility in rats; a 2021 claim to have rediscovered the plant in Anatolia (Ferula drudeana) is under study.
- Toxic dose
- Unknown.
- Standing
- Extinct or lost; the one drug in the Materia Medica that cannot be tested.
- Riddle, J. M. (1992). Contraception and Abortion from the Ancient World to the Renaissance. Harvard University Press. Verified against its record · doi:10.2307/2167562
- Miski, M. (2021). “Next chapter in the legend of silphion: preliminary morphological, chemical, biological and pharmacological evaluations.” Plants 10. Verified against its record · doi:10.3390/plants10010102
The abstract of each source, beneath its citation. For Club members. About the Club or sign in.
Constituent names open the compound’s record at PubChem, and “ChEMBL” beside a name opens its record at ChEMBL, the European Bioinformatics Institute’s database of bioactive molecules. Where a mechanism line was checked against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37, read 1 October 2026), the check is shown with the measured value and its source paper, or says plainly that nothing has been measured. Doses are as the references give them, for description only; this is not medical advice. Each source carries the result of its check against Crossref, PubMed, or the authority’s page: see Verification.
Silphium: what lore surrounds it?
The lost remedy of antiquity, prized as seasoning and as medicine for many ills; asafoetida was the lesser substitute (see Asafoetida).
Its extinction did not end its afterlife. The historian John Riddle has argued that silphium was used in antiquity as a contraceptive and early abortifacient, the physician Soranus recommending a chickpea-sized dose monthly, and that its seed pod, stamped on the coins of Cyrene, is a real candidate for the origin of the heart symbol. Scholars take the idea seriously but treat it as an intriguing hypothesis rather than settled fact.
Silphium: what did the older authorities say?
- Cyrene
- Its image was stamped on the city’s coins; the plant was its fortune.
- Pliny
- Says that in his day only a single stalk had been found in living memory, and it was sent to the emperor Nero.
Sources
- Pliny, Natural History XIX. Primary text
- Theophrastus, Enquiry into Plants. Verified against its record · doi:10.4159/dlcl.theophrastus-enquiry_plants.1916
- Atlas Obscura, “The Original Seed Pod That May Have Inspired the Heart Shape.” Book, seen in reviews
Verification
- Checked
- October 1, 2026
- Passes
- Every sentence read against its sources, in the fifty-entry sample
- The Standing line checked against the authority it names (EMA, WHO, FDA, CITES, Commission E)
- Every dated or regulatory claim checked by category across the database
- Sources
- 5 cited: 3 verified against its record, 1 primary text, 1 book, seen in reviews. 1 with the abstract on file.
- Corrections
- None were needed.
What was checked, how, and what was found is set out on the Verification page. A checked source is one whose record was found; it does not make the entry medical advice.
Cite This Entry
Version 1 · first published September 25, 2026
- Chicago
“Silphium.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified September 25, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/silphium.
- MLA
“Silphium.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 25 Sept. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/silphium. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Silphium. (2026, September 25). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 8, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/silphium
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See Also
Sharing unknown
Armillaria · Passarino’s white powder · Entoloma sinuatum · Tricholoma equestre
Also in Pliny the Elder
Snail in Pliny the Elder · Shepherd’s purse in Pliny the Elder · Snapdragon in Pliny the Elder · Scammony in Pliny the Elder · everything Pliny the Elder names →
Drawing on the same sources: Pliny, Theophrastus
Thyme · Rocket · Toad · White lead · Opopanax · Aconite · the bibliography →
Nearby in the alphabet
Silver · The sickener (brittle mushroom of wet pine woods) · Shiitake (cultivated in China and Japan for about a thousand years) · Solomon’s seal (Polygonatum multiflorum and its relatives) · Senna (The leaves and pods of Senna alexandrina)
Historical description, not medical advice.