[Textual research on varieties of Draconis Sanguis].

This paper reviewed the historical evolution of the varieties of Draconis Sanguis in traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) and discussed several doubts. Draconis Sanguis used in ancient Europe and Arabia was derived from Dracaena plants, and that originating from Southeast Asia entered the market in the 16 th century. Draconis Sanguis was introduced into China in the 5 th century at the latest and was once mixed with shellac for use. Draconis Sanguis in the Tang Dynasty and before was the resin of Dracaena plants. Scholars in the Song Dynasty have known that Draconis Sanguis came from the resin of tall trees, but their understanding of origin plants was inconsistent with the facts. The origin of Draconis Sanguis in the Song Dynasty was basically determined to be Mirbat(Maliba), Cengtan, and Somali, as well as Socotra Archipelago. About 1371-1416, Draconis Sanguis prepared from Daemonorops draco was imported into China, and was recorded earlier in The Overall Survey of the Ocean's Shores(Ying Ya Sheng Lan) and Code of Great Ming Dynasty(Da Ming Hui Dian). Draconis Sanguis prepared from Dracaena plants was still authentic for a long time after the import of that from D. draco into China. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Dian Zhi(1625), a lost edition of Materia Medica in Southern Yunnan(Dian Nan Ben Cao), Textual Research on Reality and Titles of Plants(Zhi Wu Ming Shi Tu Kao), and other local chronicles recorded that a new type of Draconis Sanguis(Mu Xue Jie) was produced in Yuanjiang, Yunnan province. The New Yunnan Chronicles of the Republic of China recorded the production of another type of Draconis Sanguis(Qi Lin Jie) in Xishuangbanna. However, the authenticity of the above two types has been difficult to confirm. In modern times, Draconis Sanguis prepared from D. draco gradually became the mainstream variety. In the 1970 s, Dracaena cochinchinensi was found in Yunnan and other provinces, and Draconis Sanguis from D. cochinchinensi was developed. This study is expected to provide a solid and reliable literature support for the research and development of Draconis Sanguis, enrich historical materials, and provide new clues for follow-up research.

Influence of Arabian Pharmacy on Diseases Tretament During Ottoman's Period in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Arab cultural heritage was an era of invaluable preservation and development of numerous teachings, including biomedical sciences. The golden period of Arab medicine deserves special attention in the history of medicine and pharmacy, as it was the period of rapid translation of works from Greek and Persian cultures into Arabic. They preserved their culture, and science from decay, and then adopted them to continue building their science on theirs as a basis. After the fall of Arabian Caliphate, Arabian pharmacy, continued to persevere, and spread through Turkish Caliphate until its fall in the First World War. That way, Arabian pharmacy will be spread to new areas that had benefited from it, including the area of occupied Bosnia and Herzegovina. Because of the vast territorial scope of the Ottoman Empire, the focus of this paper is description of developing pharmacy in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the time of Ottoman reign.

[Retrospect and prospect of medicinal plants cultivation in China].

There is time-honored history and culture of medicinal plant cultivation in China. In the present review, the medicinal plant cultivation history in china was summarized, its current situation and question were analyzed, and the prospects of medicinal plant cultivation research were pointed out, with the purpose of accelerating the growth of medicinal plant cultivation research.

[Revision to origin of northern Artemisia argyi in Compendium of Materia Medica (Bencao gangmu)].

The origin of northern Artemisia argyi recorded in Compendium of Materia Medica(Bencao gangmu) is Fudao(Chinese characters) in Tangyin county, While there is only Fudao(Chinese characters) instead of Fudao(Chinese characters). Whether indeed Fudao(Chinese characters) is Fudao(Chinese characters)? By reviewing the genuine evolution of A. argyi, doing textual research on Fudao(Chinese characters) and combing with field survey data of national census of Chinese Materia Medica resources, this paper concluded that the word Fudao(Chinese characters) firstly emerged in Figure Canon of Chinese Materia Medica(Bencao tujing) of Susong in Song dynasty and was applied in later generations, but the implication was not clear, then emerged both Tangyin and Fudao(Chinese characters) in Compendium of Materia Medica(Bencao gangmu). The place Fudao(Chinese characters) is one of the graves of Bianque, that existed from Shang and Zhou dynasty and never changed until now, the A. argyi of Tangyin was famous from the grave of Bianque in Fudao(Chinese characters), which could infer that Lishizhen considered Fudao (Chinese characters) was Fudao(Chinese characters) indeed, and the origin of northern A. argyi was Fudao(Chinese characters) in Tangyin county.

On the history of opium / Z dziejów opium.

Most likely, opium was the first narcotic substance discovered at the dawn of humankind. The history of drug addiction is immensely rich and allows for tracing the long way humankind had to travel to reach the contemporary level of consciousness with respect to narcotic substances. A retrospective view of drug addiction that takes into consideration the historical context, while extending our knowledge, also allows for a better understanding of today's problems. The report presents elements of a retrospective view of problems associated with addiction to opium, morphine and heroin over the centuries, what is a subject of scientific interest in contemporary toxicology.

The biopsychosocial model and its potential for a new theory of homeopathy.

Since the nineteenth century the theory of conventional medicine has been developed in close alignment with the mechanistic paradigm of natural sciences. Only in the twentieth century occasional attempts were made to (re)introduce the 'subject' into medical theory, as by Thure von Uexküll (1908-2004) who elaborated the so-called biopsychosocial model of the human being, trying to understand the patient as a unit of organic, mental, and social dimensions of life. Although widely neglected by conventional medicine, it is one of the most coherent, significant, and up-to-date models of medicine at present. Being torn between strict adherence to Hahnemann's original conceptualization and alienation caused by contemporary scientific criticism, homeopathy today still lacks a generally accepted, consistent, and definitive theory which would explain in scientific terms its strength, peculiarity, and principles without relapsing into biomedical reductionism. The biopsychosocial model of the human being implies great potential for a new theory of homeopathy, as may be demonstrated with some typical examples.

[Evidential research on the first formulas for preparing qiushi (autumn mineral)].

Qiushi is a kind of elixir or medicine. This article examines the books which recorded the formulas for preparing Qiushi. It is found that Liang Fang (Valuable Prescriptions) written by Shen Kuo and Zheng Lei Ben Cao (recognized pharmacopoeia) written by Tang Shengwei recorded the first three formulas. Shen kuo, who recorded two kinds of methods to prepare Qiushi, was neglected by other medical books. The aim of the method to prepare Renzhongbai (natural sediment of urine) was actually to prepare Qiushi.

[The properties of simple medicines according to Avicenna (980-1037): analysis of some sections of the Canon]. / Les propriétés des remèdes simples selon Avicenne (980-1037): analyse de quelques passages du Canon.

Avicenna spoke on pharmacology in several works, and this article considers his discussions in the Canon, a vast synthesis of the greco-arabian medicine of his time. More precisely, it focuses on book II, which treats simple medicines. This text makes evident that the Persian physician's central preoccupation was the efficacy of the treatment, since it concentrates on the properties of medicines. In this context, the article examines their different classifications and related topics, such as the notion of temperament, central to Avicenna's thought, and the concrete effects medicines have on the body. Yet, these theoretical notions only have sense in practical application. For Avicenna, medicine is both a theoretical and a practical science. For this reason, the second book of the Canon ends with an imposing pharmacopoeia, where the properties described theoretically at the beginning of the book appear in the list of simple medicines, so that the physician can select them according to the intended treatment's goals. The article analyzes a plant from this pharmacopoeia as an example of this practical application, making evident the logic Avicenna uses in detailing the different properties of each simple medicine.

To feel what others feel: two episodes from 18th century medicine.

In the late 18th century two medical fashions--Mesmerism in France and the Perkins 'tractor' in the USA and England--appealed to the principle that a single universal force acts on all of us and is responsible for health and illness. This principle served both fashions well, as it made it all the easier for those who came within their force fields to experience the sort of sensations that other subscribers to the fashion also seemed to feel. The first research on what is now known as the placebo effect was in connection with these two movements. The propensity to feel what we suppose or imagine that others like us feel remains even now one of the channels of the placebo effect.

[Behind the naming of herbal section as the decoction section in Treasured Mirror Of Eastern Medicine].

Heo Jun, who is the main compiler of Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine, states to applicate Shennong's Classic of Materia Medica, Rihuazi's annotations and Li Gao and Zhu Zhenheng's opinion to arrange materia medica on the introductory notes of Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine. While Shennong's Classic of Materia Medica and Rihuazi's annotations are both conventional texts dealing with materia medica, Li Gao and Zhu Zhenheng are just clinical practitioners. Not only Li Gao has no authorship on materia medica, but also Zhu Zhenheng's Supplement to the Elucidation of Materia Medica is assessed to have no distinctive achievements. Nevertheless, Heo Jun shows positive considerations for their achievements of materia medica. Specifically, on the Decoction Section in Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine, theories of lift, lower, float, sink and Channel Entry, both representative achievements of Yishui school-including Li Gao-are adopted as it is, and Zhu Zhenheng's expressions are frequently utilized for conclusive remarks of medicinal effect. Furthermore, applications of both clinicians can be found within nature & flavour which is one of the principal terms of understanding materia medica. While being based on the conventional materia medica text Classified Emergency Materia Medica, the Decoction section in Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine is not restrained by the intricate traditional compositions and shows a new aspect of depiction by adding clinical information. And I think it is a important meaning of the Decoction section, which is the herbal chapter of Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine.

The real Theriac - panacea, poisonous drug or quackery?

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Theriac is considered the most popular cure-all multi-ingredient medicine and has been used for more than two millennia. It has also been used as one of the most important anti-epidemic drugs up to the 19th c., treated as an emergency medicine in case of e.g. bubonic plague. AIM OF THE STUDY: Until now, no reliable information regarding the pharmacological effect of the treacle was available, including its possible toxic or narcotic properties. In order to change the state of knowledge in this matter we have selected the Theriac recipe that had been actually used for producing the treacle in 1630, which was confirmed by the official municipal documents of the time. METHODS: The recipe was written in Latin, with the use of pre-Linnean nomenclature and then apothecary common names, which required translation into the modern scientific language in order to get reliable pharmacological conclusions. The information from historical sources has been compiled with the pharmacological data concerning the most potent compounds, which for the first time made it possible to calculate the amounts of active compounds in the doses taken by then patients. RESULTS: Only two species included in Theriac can be harmful in humans: poppy and sea squill, but in both cases the calculated quantity of morphine and cardiac glycosides, respectively, were below toxic level. There are no indications, both from the historical and pharmacological point of view, for Theriac being toxic or narcotic in patients, when used as prescribed. CONCLUSIONS: As for now, the most probable is that the treacle owed its postulated efficacy in the main indications to the placebo effect. Still, the results should be further confirmed by reconstructing the actual Theriac and subjecting it to modern tests and analyses.

[A short history of anti-rheumatic therapy. I. An introduction on traditional and drug treatments]. / Piccola storia della terapia antireumatica. I. Una premessa sulle terapie tradizionali e farmacologiche.

The origins of anti-rheumatic therapy are very old and mainly related to the use of traditional, sometimes extravagant, treatments, as a part of folk medicine. Spa therapy has long been used for the treatment of rheumatic diseases, as well as, in later times, physical treatments, including electrotherapy. Drug treatment has developed beginning from substances of vegetable origin, such as willow and colchicum extracts. Then it has been spread out through the chemical synthesis of compounds with specific action and therefore more effective, owing to the great development of pharmaceutical industry.

[Debate about the theriac in Arabic treatises]. / La thériaque en débat dans les traités arabes.

The Greek treatises about antidotes of Andromaque and Galen, have been the subject of various translations in Arabic language. Thus, numerous highly interested arab-muslim physicians discovered, used and then spread the formulae of the Great Theriac. Two attitudes can be distinguished at first: they either copied and used as before their literary sources or they adapted them by changing the proportions of the components which compose the electuary or by changing even some of them. These different approaches involve comments and criticisms and bring about the third attitude: a rich debate of ideas. The article proposes to recall through quotations of arab-muslim physicians the evolution of the matter.

[What was Montpellier's theriac]. / Ce que fut la thériaque de Montpellier.

The long-lasting fame of Montpellier's theriac does not come from the originality of its composition. In the Middle Ages, its formula followed Antidotarium Nicolai's while, in the modern period, it copied Galen's. This fame is explained by the reputation of the medical University, by the dynamism of its apothecaries and by the strength of Montpellier's trade networks.

[The opiate pharmacopeia in France from its origins to the 19th century]. / La pharmacopée opiacée en France des origines au XIXe siècle.

For thousands of years, opium was the main remedy against pain. Its analgesic properties have been known since antiquity, as well as its stupefacient, narcotic and addictive effects. A countless number of opiate galenical preparations had already been formulated by the beginning of our era. The best-known were electuaries, complex drugs combining multiple active substances, essentially plant-based, used to obtain beneficial effects for different aliments. These universal remedies were panaceas. Sonne opium--or opiate--based electuaries were recommended as antidotes to poison or snake venom. The best-known, Mithridate and Theriac Andromache (Venice Treacle), the latter also containing viper flesh, combined up to a hundred or so ingredients. However, this polypharmacy was criticized and it was an English doctor, Thomas Sydenham, to whom we owe the preparation of a liquid laudanum which was easier to administer than an electuary. Sydenham's laudanum (1683) was adopted by ail the pharmacopeias. Later, based on a traditional research approach, pharmacists attempted to isolate the active principles of opium. Seguin, but above ail the German pharmacist Sertürner (in 1805 and 1817) isolated morphine. Organic chemists took over from the analysts, and morphine derivatives were obtained by hemi-synthesis (heroin), and then central analgesics, or opioids, by total synthesis. Opium is no longer seen as the only supreme remedy for painful disorders, and its galenic forms have gradually disappeared from pharmacopeias.

[Looking for the roots of Wa Na Qi].

Wa Na Qi(), is a traditional-curing male impotence medicinal. We have made several conclusions through a field investigation to Antarctica, material medica literature research, and current market investigation. Throughout history, Wa Na Qi (also known ashaigou shen) was a word of vague connotation which was not the meaning of a specific product. However, the most common meaning of Wa Na Qi was the penises of several different species of seals. The name Wa Na Qi was adapted from a foreign word, and it is believed to sound like walrus, which has also been credited as a source for Wa Na Qi. In Chinese, Wa Na was a reference to the roundness of the walrus but eventually became a general description of heaviness. Later, it became a name for fur seals. The Song Dynasty Materia Medica Bencao Tujing(, Illustration of Materia Medica) and the Ming Dynasty Materia Medica Bencao Pinhui Jingyao(, Collected Essentials of Species of Materia Medica) both had animal illustrations resembling fur seals. The illustrations in the Compendium of Materia Medica, or Bencao Gangmu, Jinling edition also had characteristics of a fur seal. However, in the Buyi Leigong Paozhi Bianlan(, Lei Gong's Guide to Drug Preparation with Addenda) and later materia medica works, the animal illustrations became distorted and almost myth-like. After a field investigation in Antarctica, we learned that historically, name Wa Na Qi probably originated from seals, such as fur seals. This information matches the current medicines available on the market.

Data Mining a Medieval Medical Text Reveals Patterns in Ingredient Choice That Reflect Biological Activity against Infectious Agents.

The pharmacopeia used by physicians and laypeople in medieval Europe has largely been dismissed as placebo or superstition. While we now recognize that some of the materia medica used by medieval physicians could have had useful biological properties, research in this area is limited by the labor-intensive process of searching and interpreting historical medical texts. Here, we demonstrate the potential power of turning medieval medical texts into contextualized electronic databases amenable to exploration by the use of an algorithm. We used established methodologies from network science to reveal patterns in ingredient selection and usage in a key text, the 15th-century Lylye of Medicynes, focusing on remedies to treat symptoms of microbial infection. In providing a worked example of data-driven textual analysis, we demonstrate the potential of this approach to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration and to shine a new light on the ethnopharmacology of historical medical texts.IMPORTANCE We used established methodologies from network science to identify patterns in medicinal ingredient combinations in a key medieval text, the 15th-century Lylye of Medicynes, focusing on recipes for topical treatments for symptoms of microbial infection. We conducted experiments screening the antimicrobial activity of selected ingredients. These experiments revealed interesting examples of ingredients that potentiated or interfered with each other's activity and that would be useful bases for future, more detailed experiments. Our results highlight (i) the potential to use methodologies from network science to analyze medieval data sets and detect patterns of ingredient combination, (ii) the potential of interdisciplinary collaboration to reveal different aspects of the ethnopharmacology of historical medical texts, and (iii) the potential development of novel therapeutics inspired by premodern remedies in a time of increased need for new antibiotics.

Armenian medicine and diseases of the kidney.

The history of Armenian medicine is that of the common practice of medicine in caring for the sick through the ages, using mainly local medicinal herbs and natural products. Over the years, its practitioners persistently collected and recorded an expanding body of information on therapeutics and put it to use for the daily medical care of ordinary folks. Armenian medicine developed around the church and monasteries, which flourished during episodic periods of peace in an otherwise tumultuous and warring region. However, unlike the monastic medicine that developed in Europe, Armenian medicine maintained the rationality it had acquired from Greek medicine, and never resorted to magic, myth or amulets. Nor did it acquire or import saints. Armenian medicine is a classic example of the evolving art of therapeutics, whose record is preserved in extant manuscripts, saved over the centuries in monasteries, and now preserved in accessible collections.

The concept of miasm--evolution and present day perspective.

This paper reviews the circumstances in which the concept of miasm evolved and how subsequent developments in medicine have improved our understanding of the cause of diseases. It concludes with an emphasis on the need to further refine the homeopathic concept of disease.