SC - Silphium

[Stefan li Rous]

> Don't confuse laser with silphium, as an
> earlier comment did. Silphium was the resin of a related plant which  became
> extinct due to overharvesting in the wild in the period of the early Roman
> Empire (so, anyhow,  if you have an Apician recipe calling for silphium,
> your best substitute is the closely related asafetida).
> 
> Francesco Sirene

Yes, silphium is now extinct. It grew only in a rather small area of the
southern Mediterranean. But the demand for it was enormous. It was harvested
to extinction sometime in the 3rd or 4th C AD. But it was not primarily used
as a food ingredient. It was the Classical World's best birth control herb.

For more on this, see "Ever Since Eve..., Birth Control in the Ancient
World". March/April 1994 Archaeology.

- -- 
Lord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mark S. Harris             Austin, Texas           stefan at texas.net
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