Ancient Aphrodisiacs: The Dangerous History of Plants

For centuries, humans have scoured the botanical world in search of plants that spark desire. But this pursuit often came with a heavy price. In this episode, we explore the dangerous history of ancient aphrodisiacs, examining the plants that were prized for their potency and feared for their toxicity. 

Transcript

Before we dive in, a quick heads-up — I’m still recovering from a cold, so my voice may sound a little different than usual. Thanks for bearing with me while I get back to full strength.

Ever wonder what people did thousands of years ago to spice up their love lives? Buckleup, because we're about to dive into the wild — and sometimes dangerous — world of ancient aphrodisiacs.

For millennia, cultures around the globe mixed, crushed, and consumed all sorts of things in hopes of boosting desire and fertility. Some of these concoctions were harmless. Others? Absolutely deadly.

Before chemistry labs, before clinical trials, before anything resembling modern science — there was the garden. And in the garden, people believed, lived the answers to some of their most desperate longings.

The ancient Greeks even named this entire pursuit after a goddess. Aphrodite — the goddess of love, beauty, and desire. Her name gave us the word aphrodisiac. And she wasn't just a symbol. She was, in the mythology of the time, actively involved. According to legend, it was Aphrodite herself who planted the first pomegranate tree. The myrtle plant was her sacred bloom — woven into bridal crowns, planted beside homes to attract romantic fortune. Even the red rose was hers, born, they said, when she pricked her foot on a thorn rushing to her dying lover Adonis, and her blood turned white roses crimson.

That's the mythology. Beautiful. Poetic. But the reality of what people actually consumed in the name of desire? That's a very different story.

Let's start in the garden. Ancient Greeks had a thing for bulbs and roots. They believed garlic and onions could activate passion because, well, they looked like human testes. This was called "sympathetic magic" — the idea that like affects like.

Leeks got the same treatment. Their stiff, phallic shape was thought to transfer that quality to the men who ate them.

And then there was the onion more broadly. It has been mentioned as an aphrodisiac not just by the Greeks but by ancient Egyptians, Arabs, Persians, and Romans. Priests in Egypt and Persia were reportedly forbidden from eating onions in order to maintain celibacy. The belief was that potent. In France, the tradition lasted well into early modern times — newlyweds were advised to eat onion soup the morning after their wedding to restore their passion.

But if the onion was the folk remedy, the mandrake was the obsession.

But no plant carried more mythological weight than mandrake. And when you understand what people believed about it, you'll understand why.

The mandrake has a long, forked taproot that can look disturbingly like a human body. Under the so-called Doctrine of Signatures — a medieval idea that God had shaped plants to signal their purpose — this humanoid plant was taken as proof of reproductive power. People slept with mandrake roots under their pillows. They added it to their wine.

Never mind that mandrake is toxic. That didn't stop anyone.

The Greeks were obsessed with it. The botanist Theophrastus, writing in the 4th century BCE, described how scraping the root's skin and stirring it into wine produced a potent love potion. Aphrodite herself was known by the epithet or nickname Mandragoritis — she of the mandrake. 

The sorceress Circe was said to use it. 

Even in the Hebrew Bible, in the Book of Genesis, the childless Rachel desperately trades with her sister Leah for mandrakes brought in from the fields, treating them as a fertility charm. This is one of the oldest recorded plant-aphrodisiac stories in all of literature.

In medieval Europe, the mythology deepened and darkened. German folklore claimed the plant grew from the ground beneath gallows, nourished by what dripped from hanged men. It was believed that mandrake could only be safely uprooted in moonlight, after prayer and ritual, using a black dog tied to the plant by a cord. And if you pulled it from the earth carelessly? Legend said it would shriek — a sound so terrible it could drive you mad. Or kill you outright.People still used it. The screaming didn't stop them. Nothing did.

Then there was a plant called Satyrion(sah-tee-ree-uhn) — an orchid from classical Greece, named after the lustful satyrs of mythology. And the claims made about it were extraordinary.

The botanist Theophrastus wrote that it could produce seventy consecutive acts of sex from a single dose. Some Roman sources suggested you didn't even need to eat it. Holding the root in your hand was said to be enough.

The demand was so intense, the harvesting so relentless, that Satyrion(sah-tee-ree-uhn)  was driven to extinction. Gone. Forever. A plant wiped from the face of the earth because people believed in its power so completely that they consumed every last one.

But this is not a cautionary tale from a myth. That is what actually happened.

Moving on from roots and orchids. In ancient Egypt, pomegranate juice mixed with wine was a popular aphrodisiac — fitting, given the myth that Aphrodite planted the first pomegranate tree herself. But here's a surprise: lettuce. For over three thousand years, Egyptians considered it highly lustful. The god Min, associated with reproduction, was often depicted with it. Meanwhile, the Greeks and Romans sometimes believed fresh lettuce had the opposite effect. Same plant. Completely contradictory beliefs.

Artichokes have their own legend. According to Greek myth, Zeus transformed a girl named Cynara into an artichoke — prickly on the outside, soft within. The Greeks believed eating them could spark sexual desire and even help produce male children. Fast forward to 17th-century Sweden, where wives supposedly used artichokes to rekindle their husbands' interest.

Asparagus, with its shape and rapid growth, was believed to cure erectile dysfunction. French nobles reportedly ate large amounts before their wedding nights. The Kama Sutra recommended an asparagus-and-milk paste, while Renaissance herbals praised asparagus wine saying quote "stirreth up lust."

And saffron. The ancient Greeks prized it so highly that Aristotle himself reportedly used it to spice up his food — and his love life.

And then there was Datura. Powerful and deadly. Popular in ancient India as a hallucinogen that could kill. In ancient Colombia, it was allegedly used to drug the wives of dead chieftains so they could be buried alive alongside their husbands.

We've gone from Aphrodite's garden to a burial ground rather quickly. That's the pattern here. The aphrodisiac tradition rarely stayed poetic for long.

This is where things get especially risky.

Spanish fly has been used since ancient Greek times. But it is not a plant — it's made from crushed blister beetles, and it contains cantharidin, a toxic compound that causes blistering, painful prolonged erections, and far more often: poisoning. Some historians believe it contributed to the death of Ferdinand II of Aragon.

Other substances were far stranger. In many ancient East Asian and South American Cultures Mashed worms mixed with herbs were used as sexual stimulant.

In medieval Italy, lovesick individuals were advised to steal a consecrated communion host for potions. Some recipes called for human ingredients — sweat, blood, skin, and hair.

In ancient Rome, gladiator sweat was collected and sold as an aphrodisiac. 

Cobra blood in rice wine has been used in parts of Asia since around the 10th century. Toad secretions from the cane toad were used too. They were Potentially deadly — capable of causing cardiac arrhythmias and heart attacks.

What's striking is how far people were willing to go. 

Beetles. Worms. Sweat. Blood. The garden was long behind them now.

At some point, this stopped being about desire. It became about desperation.

Aphrodisiacs didn't just exist in secret. They caused real scandals.

After his wife died, Ferdinand II of Aragon married a much younger woman. Desperate for a male heir, he reportedly used potions containing Spanish fly, which may have contributed to his death in 1516.

At the court of the king of France, Louis XIV -8-the  14), his mistress Madame de Montespan became entangled in the Affair of the Poisons. Rumors claimed she used love potions on the king's food and even participated in black masses to secure his affection. She eventually fell from favor.

The Roman poet Lucretius was supposedly driven insane by a love potion given by his wife, leading to his suicide. Historians debate the claim. But the story endured.

Women throughout history were also accused of witchcraft for allegedly using love potions. In 17th-century New Mexico, Inquisition records show women convicted of administering mixtures containing mashed worms, herbs, and bodily fluids.

These weren't just legends. People died, were executed, or had their lives destroyed — all because of the belief that the right plant, the right mixture, could control love and desire.

Even today, the aphrodisiac market carries serious risks beneath slick marketing and "natural" labels.

Some herbal aphrodisiacs sold online have been found to contain hidden pharmaceuticals such as sildenafil or tadalafil. In one study of fifteen sexual stimulation products, most contained undeclared synthetic drugs. One sample reportedly contained enough tadalafil to pose severe health risks, especially for individuals taking heart medication.

These products are marketed for sexual enhancement, yet their benefits are unproven and their risks often concealed. Forensic experts investigating suspected drug-facilitated assaults have been warned to screen for such supplements because of their hidden ingredients.

In one case, a defendant claimed to have given several women an "aphrodisiac" that instead caused severe intoxication. Subsequent analyses of similar products revealed dangerous combinations of undeclared substances — including prescription erectile dysfunction medications, yohimbine, hormones, and in some instances, GHB, notoriously known as the date rape drug.

There are also "natural" ingredients that are far from harmless, herbs like tackweed and barrenwort. And animal products like cane toad secretions and Spanish fly. While some herbal substances may have milder physiological effects, others carry real risks of poisoning or misuse.

The bottles may say "herbal" and "natural." The labels may look nothing like a medieval herbal manuscript. But the logic is the same as it was in ancient Greece. The belief that the right plant, the right root, the right mixture — holds the secret.

The point is that the ancient aphrodisiac trade never disappeared. It simply adapted.

For most of history, people believed deeply in aphrodisiacs. By the mid-1800s, emerging medical science increasingly categorized many of them as ineffective or fraudulent. An entire orchid species had already been wiped from the earth. Countless others had poisoned, killed, or destroyed the lives of those who believed in them.

The pursuit of desire is timeless. The methods have always been questionable.

From Aphrodite's garden to a bottle of unlabeled pills — the belief never died. Only the people did.