Pennyroyal

Very few of the contraceptives that have been discussed in this project have actual contraceptive or abortifacient qualities. Mentha pulegium, more commonly known as pennyroyal, is one of the contraceptives employed during antiquity that has abortifacient qualities, which helps to explain why pennyroyal is still used in folk medicine today.[1]

Description: Pennyroyal Plant

Source: New Zealand Lawn Addicts [4]

During antiquity, pennyroyal was prescribed by the physician Dioscorides to induce an abortion along with six other plants from the mint family, hulwort, thyme, sage, betony or woundwort, marjoram, and dittany.[2] Beyond prescriptions, knowledge that pennyroyal was a contraceptive and abortifacient also appears in ancient Greek plays written by the comic playwright Aristophanes. Pennyroyal appears in both the play Peace, performed in Athens in 491 BCE, and the play Lysistrata, performed in 411 BCE.[3] In both plays, pennyroyal is referenced as a solution to preventing women from becoming pregnant.[3]

Description: Bust of the playwright Aristophanes from around the 4th to 1st century BCE. Located in the

 Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy.

Source: Accessed from Britannica. [5]

Beyond the prescriptions and plays of antiquity, pennyroyal is still discussed today as a possible folk medicine solution to prevent unwanted pregnancy and remedy other ailments. However, today we have more knowledge about how ingesting these plants can affect our bodies. While pennyroyal has been consumed in folk remedies, science has shown that the oil derived from the plant is extremely toxic, specifically to the liver, and could cause death if consumed. With that in mind, it is good that most tend to stay away from the consumption of pennyroyal to cure their ailments today.[2]

Sources:

[1] Nelson, Sarah E. “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. JSTOR,

http://www.jstor.org/stable/41112420. Accessed 1 May 2025.

[2] Riddle, John M. “Chapter 5 - Early Stage Abortifacients in Dioscorides and Soranus.” Contraception and

Abortion from the Ancient World to the Renaissance. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1994,

pp. 46-56, hdl.handle.net/2027/heb01463.0001.001. Accessed 15 Apr. 2025.

[3] Riddle, John M. “Chapter 6 - Ancient Society and Birth Control Agents.” Contraception and Abortion from the

 Ancient World to the Renaissance. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1994, pp. 57-65,

hdl.handle.net/2027/heb01463.0001.001. Accessed 15 Apr. 2025.

Image Sources:

[4] Hicks, Jon. “Pennyroyal - New Zealand Lawn Addicts.” New Zealand Lawn Addicts, 29 Aug. 2023,

www.newzealandlawnaddicts.com/case-studies-advice/pennyroyal/. Accessed 4 May 2025.

[5] Taplin, Oliver, and Maurice Platnauer. “Aristophanes | Biography, Plays, & Facts.” Encyclopædia Britannica, 9

Jan. 2019, www.britannica.com/biography/Aristophanes.