In Asia Minor, some four millennia ago, the Sumerians flourished and produced a high literary culture. There is still extant a love song, chanted annually by the Sumerians, that is in the manner of the Biblical Song of Songs. It is an exultant amatory paean, dedicated to Inanna, the Sumerian goddess of love and procreation, who may be equated with the Babylonian Astarte and the Greek Aphrodite.
Storgethron, a plant used in ancient Greece as an amatory medicine, has been identified as the leek.
The root called surag was, in antiquity, held to have a stimulative virtue.
The aromatic leaves of tarragon, which grows in South East Europe, is considered, in addition to its use as a flavoring agent, as an amatory aid.
The oil extracted from the fresh leaves of the ruta graveolens plant produces an amatory excitation.