Books — History of Abortifacient Plants

John M. Riddle — Contraception and Abortion from the Ancient World to the Renaissance (Harvard University Press, 1992) The foundational text on the subject. Riddle showed, through extraordinary scholarly sleuthing, that women from ancient Egyptian times to the fifteenth century had relied on an extensive pharmacopoeia of herbal abortifacients and contraceptives to regulate fertility. https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674168763 BiblioVault

John M. Riddle — Eve's Herbs: A History of Contraception and Abortion in the West (Harvard University Press, 1997) The follow-up volume asking why this knowledge was eventually suppressed. Knowledge of the menstrual-regulating qualities of rue, pennyroyal, and other herbs was widespread through succeeding centuries among herbalists, apothecaries, doctors, and laywomen themselves, even as theologians and legal scholars began advancing the idea that the fetus was fully human from the moment of conception. Riddle traces this from ancient Egypt through the 19th century, covering Greece, Rome, the Islamic world, and medieval Europe. https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674270268Barnes & Noble

Londa Schiebinger — Plants and Empire: Colonial Bioprospecting in the Atlantic World (Harvard University Press, 2004) Covers the Caribbean, West Africa, and the suppression of abortifacient knowledge in European colonial science. Desperate to extract botanical knowledge from native peoples, Europeans were equally anxious to suppress other medicines — most notably the abortifacients with which slaves sought to cheat their master of property, and through which European women might also seek to rob the mercantilist state of population.https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674025684 Harvard University Press

Ancient World — Greece, Rome, Egypt

Sara E. Nelson — "Persephone's Seeds: Abortifacients and Contraceptives in Ancient Greek Medicine and Their Recent Scientific Appraisal" Pharmacy in History, Vol. 51, No. 2, 2009, pp. 57–69 A peer-reviewed article examining pennyroyal, silphium, and other plants documented by ancient Greek physicians. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41112209

Riddle's interview, Institute for New Economic Thinking — "Abortion Drugs Fundamental to Ancient Economies"A useful accessible summary of the ancient scholarship, covering silphium's role in Cyrene's economy. Riddle holds that silphium was popular with the Greeks and Romans primarily because it was used to terminate pregnancies — so much so that the city-state of Cyrene based its whole economy on the plant until it was overharvested to extinction. He also notes that the Egyptians listed abortifacients in medical texts, and the Greeks were so accustomed to abortion drugs that Aristophanes joked about them. https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/abortion-drugs-fundamental-to-ancient-economies-argues-historian Institute for New Economic Thinking

The Lancet — "Exotic Abortifacients and Lost Knowledge" (on Merian, Schiebinger, ancient and colonial sources)The Lancet, Vol. 371, Issue 9614, March 2008 https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(08)60330-X/fulltext

Persian & Islamic Traditional Medicine

Nejatbakhsh et al. — "Medicinal Plants with Abortifacient or Emmenagogue Activity: A Narrative Review Based on Traditional Persian Medicine" Jundishapur Journal of Natural Pharmaceutical Products, 2022 In traditional Persian medicine literature, 88 plants with abortifacient activity were found, including sesame, myrrh, and henna, drawn from classical texts including Al-Qanun Fi at-Tibb (Avicenna's Canon of Medicine), Tuhfat-al-Momenin, and Makhzan-ul-advia. https://doi.org/10.5812/jjnpp.119559 Brief Lands

South Asia — Ayurveda & Indian Traditional Medicine

Bhatt & Deshpande — "A Critical Review and Scientific Prospective on Contraceptive Therapeutics from Ayurveda and Allied Ancient Knowledge" Frontiers in Pharmacology, 2021 (peer-reviewed, open access) This study reviewed 94 indigenous medicinal plants, finding that those with abortifacient and contraceptive properties were maximally concentrated in the Fabaceae, Acanthaceae, Euphorbiaceae, and Liliaceae families. It observed that 79 plant drugs and six mineral drugs are used as abortifacients or oral contraceptives in Ayurvedic traditions.https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/pharmacology/articles/10.3389/fphar.2021.629591/full PubMed Central

ScienceDirect — "Commonly Used Indian Abortifacient Plants with Special Reference to Their Teratologic Effects" Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 1992 — a survey of Ayurvedic and Unani plant use in Uttar Pradesh.https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/037887419290015J

Asia & Pacific

Chen et al. — "Roots, Leaves, and Flowers: A Narrative Review of Herbs and Botanicals Used for Self-Managed Abortion in Asia and the Pacific" Journal of Midwifery & Women's Health, 2023 (peer-reviewed) Botanicals such as papaya leaves, hibiscus flowers, and traditional Chinese medicines including tianhuafen, yuanhua, and Shenghua Decoction have undergone scientific and clinical investigation of their potential abortifacient action. Their use continues into the modern day, especially in Asia, Hawai'i, and other Pacific Islands, where indigenous medicine traditions practice alongside allopathic medicine. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37668006/ PubMed

Africa

NIH/PMC — "Benefits of Traditional Medicinal Plants to African Women's Health" Diseases, 2024 More than 570 medications have been reportedly used in Asia, Europe, Oceania, Africa, and America to help women with their menstruation health. The review covers sub-Saharan African plants used for reproductive management across many ethnic traditions. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12110240/ nih

Indigenous North America

Daniel Moerman — Native American Ethnobotany (Timber Press, 1998) The standard reference work. Moerman wrote that calamus, one of the ten most common medicinal drugs of Native American societies, was used as an abortifacient by the Lenape, Cree, Mohegan, Sioux, and other tribes; and he listed more than one hundred substances used as abortifacients by Native Americans.https://www.timberpress.com/books/native_american_ethnobotany/moerman/9780881924534 Wikipedia

Virgil Vogel — American Indian Medicine (University of Oklahoma Press, 1970) An earlier key reference. Vogel documents that the Ojibwe used blue cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides) as an abortifacient, and the Quinault used thistle for the same purpose. His appendix lists red cedar, American pennyroyal, tansy, Canada wild ginger, and several other herbs as abortifacients used by various North American Indian tribes.https://www.oupress.com/9780806114200/american-indian-medicine/ Wikipedia

Herbal History Research Network — "Researching Ethnobotany in the Archives: Authority and Silences in the Stories of Native and African American Medicines" A methodological essay linking Native American and African American plant knowledge, focusing on cotton and blue cohosh. https://www.herbalhistory.org/home/researching-ethnobotany-in-the-archives-authority-and-silences-in-the-stories-of-native-and-african-american-medicines/