The spanish fly (Spanish fly ) or cantarida It has nothing to do with our common fly, it is actually a kind of small bright green beetle that lives in ash trees. The chemical compound obtained by drying and pulverizing the body of this insect is called cantharidin .
Hippocrates already described the use of this compound for the treatment of skin ulcerations, the Chinese also used it as one of the components of the first stink bomb . But its most frequent use and why it has been consumed throughout history it has been a powerful aphrodisiac .
Cantharidin in small controlled doses, since an overdose can be fatal, dilates blood vessels (facilitating prolonged erection in men) and stimulates nervous perception in the area where the compound has been applied. It was already used by Livia , the wife of César Augusto, for political purposes:she mixed it with food and offered it to her husband's enemies to encourage their sexual indiscretions and then blackmail them. The Marquis de Sade he was accused of poisoning when he overdosed on an orgy…several prostitutes died. It is said that Ferdinand the Catholic He died of abusing the Spanish fly... that's what it takes to satisfy a woman almost 40 years younger. In the 18th century, the Richelieu pastilles became fashionable in France, in lozenge format. (whose content was cantharidin).
To the Spanish fly it happened to him like the fugu , which is deadly poisonous if improperly administered/prepared. Today its use is prohibited for these purposes, although it is used to help to animals in mating.
Sources:History of spanish fly, Aphrodisiacs, El bichito del amor