The highly toxic pennyroyal, one of the
oldest abortifacients in the world.

Powerful Herbs
Around the 1st century AD, the Roman gynaecologist Soranus and the famous Greek physician and botanist Dioscorides recorded several plants that they believed could be used as either contraceptives, emmenagogues (which brought on a period) or abortifacients (which cause an abortion in the early stages of pregnancy). Among those they listed were wormwood, mugwort, pennyroyal, rue and wild carrot (or Queen Anne's lace).

By the Middle Ages, many other 'herbals' (illustrated manuscripts about herbs) had been written, but Dioscorides' remained the most influential. Village healers also had a strong oral knowledge of herbal medicines. These 'wise women' were skilled in the use of herbs and ointments, which they used to bring on late periods and cure other 'women's problems'. They also advised and assisted pregnant women, were respected midwives, and prescribed treatments for a wide range of illnesses. From the mid 1500s, university-trained male physicians began to brand folk medicine as 'unreliable magic' and 'superstition'. Gradually, Western medicine lost the ancient knowledge of herbal contraceptives.

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