Moly (herb)

[1] In Homer's Odyssey, Hermes gave his herb to Odysseus to protect him from Circe's poison and magic when he went to her palace to rescue his friends.

Philippe Champault decides in favour of the Peganum harmala (of the family Nitrariaceae),[9] the Syrian or African rue (Greek πἠγανον), from the seeds and roots of which the vegetable alkaloid harmaline is extracted.

Victor Bérard (1906)[8] relying partly on a Semitic root,[10] prefers the Atriplex halimus[b] family Amaranthaceae – a herb or low shrub common on the south European coasts.

[12] Medical historians have speculated that the transformation to pigs was not intended literally, but instead refers to anticholinergic intoxication whose symptoms include amnesia, hallucinations, and delusions.

In 2024, a study suggested the possibility that the plant in question is, in fact, an ethnobotanical complex composed of several phylogenetically close species, which could have been used interchangeably due to their similar properties.