Plants can be more valuable than gold

In ancient times, this highly coveted plant was found along the coast of Libya, in an area that was called Cyrenaica. It was widely used as a seasoning for cooking, appearing in Roman recipe texts of the time. It was a wonder drug, used for everything from curing baldness to alleviating dental pain and a balm for animal and insect bites. At the time it was as valuable as silver.

Silphion was so valuable that it was depleted and disappeared from use. Lore has it that the last stalk of silphion was given to and consumed by the Roman emperor Nero. The plant was considered extinct for centuries until recently, when it was found in the foothills of Mount Hasan in central Turkey, hundreds of miles and across the Mediterranean Sea from its ancient source. The thought is that it may have been brought into the area by Cappadocian Greeks who brought silphion seeds to Central Anatolia. Part of the mystery may be because of the fact that the plant is difficult to cultivate and takes up to 10 years to mature. The people who planted it had to wait so long that they forgot its value and then ignored the plant.

Fast forward to today and the discovery of Ferula drudeana, what is thought to be the ancient silphion plant. The plant is related to the family of plants that include carrots, parsley and fennel. The problem is that there is no source of the ancient silphion plant to compare it to. Luckily, we have images of it on ancient coins, and the newly discovered plant looks similar. Scientists are looking at materials recovered from shipwrecks and other ancient artifacts to see if they can find any scraps of it to compare.

There are many, many medicinally active chemicals in Ferula drudeana that are of interest today, and they are found in all parts of the plant. Some have anti-cancer activities, contraceptive properties and anti-inflammatory properties and one chemical, shyobunone, interacts with the brain’s benzodiazepine receptors.

This is another reminder to maintain the biodiversity on Earth. Each year, scientists think that we lose thousands of plant species through expanding human activities across the planet. Think of the destruction of the beautiful Amazon rain forest every year. Each time we lose a plant species, we may be losing medicines and other valuable chemicals. We have learned much from our ancient forbearers and the medicines they identified in native plants.