Decoding the biological information contained in two ancient Slavonic parchment codices: an added historical value.

This study provides an example in the emerging field of biocodicology showing how metagenomics can help answer relevant questions that may contribute to a better understanding of the history of ancient manuscripts. To this end, two Slavonic codices dating from the 11th century were investigated through shotgun metagenomics. Endogenous DNA enabled to infer the animal origin of the skins used in the manufacture of the two codices, while nucleic sequences recovered from viruses were investigated for the first time in this material, opening up new possibilities in the field of biocodicology. In addition, the microbiomes colonizing the surface of the parchments served to determine their conservation status and their latent risk of deterioration. The saline environment provided by the parchments selected halophilic and halotolerant microorganisms, which are known to be responsible for the biodegradation of parchment. Species of Nocardiopsis, Gracilibacillus and Saccharopolyspora, but also members of the Aspergillaceae family were detected in this study, all possessing enzymatic capabilities for the biodeterioration of this material. Finally, a relative abundance of microorganisms originating from the human skin microbiome were identified, most probably related to the intensive manipulation of the manuscripts throughout the centuries, which should be taken with caution as they can be potential pathogens.

Enumeration of various Ayurvedic formulations listed in an ancient palm-leaf manuscript of Rayalaseema region in Andhra Pradesh state, India.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Ancient India relied on manuscripts written by scholars for storing, transferring and retrieving the information pertaining to culture, traditions, religion, geography and political issues. Similarly, Ayurveda, an ancient human health care management system in India and most of its information is available through palm-leaf manuscripts. Though each palm-leaf can persist for a fairly long time, it suffers gradual deterioration owing to physical, chemincal and biological factors, thus warranting digitiation. The palm-leaf manuscripts of Ayurveda are extensively studied for finding new drug or treatment methods to new-age diseases. AIM OF THE STUDY: The present study concerns an unpublished ancient Telugu palm-leaf manuscript containing Ayurvedic medicine information enscripted on 33 palm-leaves. Since the palm-leaf manuscript is very old, the manual documentation, translation, digitization and analysis of it may shed light on hidden ayurvedic information that may be useful to the modern society. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The palm-leaf manuscript with 33 folios were manually documented and digitized into a Telugu book followed by translation into English. The scientific names of historical diseases, plants, animals, metals and minerals were identified based on published sources. RESULTS: A critical scrutiny of the palm-leaf manuscript revealed 120 formulations with 164 plants for 29 different kinds of diseases such as meha and prameha (urinary problems), eye diseases, skin diseases, respiratory diseases, fevers, digestive disorders, jaundice, tuberculosis, cancer and so on. Plant and animal products, metals and minerals mentioned in the said formulations were identified and listed. CONCLUSION: Basing on our study, it is concluded that the said manuscript contains mono-or poly-herbo-mineral formulations for the treatment of various ailments.This information can be incorporated into and compared with available data bases to find out the effectiveness of the drug or formulation for any given diseases. Further validation of the formulations can be done by phytochemical and in vivo pharmacological assays.

Práticas médicas e circulação de saberes na América portuguesa: reflexões sobre um caderno de receitas medicinais atribuído aos jesuítas / Medical practices and circulation of knowledge in Portuguese America: reflections on a journal of medical prescriptions attributed to the Jesuits

Busca demonstrar como alguns indícios retirados do manuscrito podem nos conduzir às práticas médicas adotadas pelos jesuítas. Comenta sobre o conhecimento dos jesuítas sobre a natureza americana, a circulação de práticas e conhecimentos, a matéria das missões médicas, o uso e a circulação de plantas como o óleo de copaíba.

Revisiting Avicenna's (ad 980-1037) Anatomical Concepts of the Musculoskeletal and Peripheral Nervous Systems in the Canon of Medicine

Avicenna, as he is known in the West, was a famous Persian Muslim physician and influential philosopher-scientist of the medieval Islamic world. He wrote and compiled the Canon of Medicine text, a book which was adopted as the main text of medicine at the most Persian and Western universities. The book consists of basic medical sciences, applied clinical sciences and pharmacology. In the current study, we present an analysis of the anatomy of the musculoskeletal and peripheral nervous systems as viewed by Avicenna in the Canon of Medicine, and compare them with the relevant modern literature.

[Interpreting the Methods for Blending Decoctions to Treat 60 Ailments in Tianhui bamboo slip medical manuscripts].

Among the medical texts excavated in 2012-2013 from the Han Dynasty tomb at Tianhui township in Sichuan province, we found a collection on the treatment of 60 ailments. Under each ailment, we found one or more formulas, for a total of 106 formulas. The authors of this paper compiled and analyzed these texts based on the original bamboo slips and named this collection with the title Methods for Blending Decoctions to Treat 60 Ailments because the content was focused on blending and making medicinal formulas, and also due to the historical connections with the texts the Record of the Court Scribe, "Biography of Bian Que and Cang Gong". For these reasons, this title was determined, where "blending decoctions" mean "blending and harmonizing medicines optimally in preparation for decocting". The Tianhui texts preserve ancient forms of medicinal formulas, including some once believed to be lost, such as "grain decoctions", "fermented alcohol decoctions", and "fiery decoctions". Based on the historical evidence, we can now ascertain that this text is the "Blending Formulas and Making Decoctions" mentioned in the Record of the Court Scribe written by Cang Gong. Moreover, the medical texts, Canon Formulas in Decoction Form (from the book of Han Dynasty) and the Imperial Pharmacy Formulas to Benefit the People in Song Dynasty are both of this genre of medical literature. The Tianhui text is therefore a representative of this genre of literature in the Western and eastern Han, acting as a key link between early medical formula books and later formula books.

[An Interpretation of the bamboo slips of acupuncture prescriptions excavated from the Han Dynasty Tomb at Laoguanshan].

The bamboo slips of acupuncture prescriptions unearthed from the Han Dynasty Tomb at Laoguanshan include both theoretical elaborations and formulae. Specifications for diagnosis and treatment, standards for needles and a variety of acupuncture techniques are discussed. The 40 acupuncture prescriptions recorded are based on presupposed summaries of theory and experience, rather than empirical formulae. Among them, 28 have needling sites that are maishu (vessel points), with proper names and specific locations. The names of these maishu adopt the pattern of 'the name of the site + the name of one of the three yin and three yang meridians'. Needling numbers are indicated for the majority of the sites of acupuncture stimulation, no matter whether for maishu or for sites at pathological areas. These statements fully embody the distinct characteristics of Bianque acupuncture.

Interpreting the Methods for Blending Decoctions to Treat 60 Ailments in Tianhui bamboo slip medical manuscripts / 中国中药杂志

Among the medical texts excavated in 2012-2013 from the Han Dynasty tomb at Tianhui township in Sichuan province, we found a collection on the treatment of 60 ailments. Under each ailment, we found one or more formulas, for a total of 106 formulas. The authors of this paper compiled and analyzed these texts based on the original bamboo slips and named this collection with the title Methods for Blending Decoctions to Treat 60 Ailments because the content was focused on blending and making medicinal formulas, and also due to the historical connections with the texts the Record of the Court Scribe, "Biography of Bian Que and Cang Gong". For these reasons, this title was determined, where "blending decoctions" mean "blending and harmonizing medicines optimally in preparation for decocting". The Tianhui texts preserve ancient forms of medicinal formulas, including some once believed to be lost, such as "grain decoctions", "fermented alcohol decoctions", and "fiery decoctions". Based on the historical evidence, we can now ascertain that this text is the "Blending Formulas and Making Decoctions" mentioned in the Record of the Court Scribe written by Cang Gong. Moreover, the medical texts, Canon Formulas in Decoction Form (from the book of Han Dynasty) and the Imperial Pharmacy Formulas to Benefit the People in Song Dynasty are both of this genre of medical literature. The Tianhui text is therefore a representative of this genre of literature in the Western and eastern Han, acting as a key link between early medical formula books and later formula books.

[Quantative analysis of eupatilin and jaceosidin in folium of Artemisia argyi from different areas in China by RP-HPLC based on ancient medicine books].

In order to evaluate the quality of Artemisia argyi from Qichun, Ningbo, Anguo and Nanyang, the contents of eupatilin and jaceosidin were determined by RP-HPLC. The determination was performed on Agilent Eclipse XDB-C18 (4.6 mm×250 mm, 5 µm) with mobile phase consisted of acetonitrile-0.2% phosphoric acid(35∶65) at the flow rate 1.0 mL•min ⁻¹. The detection wavelength was 350 nm and the column temperature was 25 ℃. The results showed that the amount of eupatilin and jaceosidin had a clear linear relationship in the range of 0.003-0.126 g•L ⁻¹ (r=0.999 9) and 0.005-0.200 g•L ⁻¹ (r=0.999 9), and the average recovery rates for them were 99.14% (n=6, RSD 1.2%) and 99.40% (n=6, RSD=0.73%), respectively. The results showed that RP-HPLC can be used for the quantification of eupatilin and jaceosidin in the folium of A. argyi. With this method, we found there was no significant difference of jaceosidin content within all the samples collected, but the content of eupatilin was significantly higher in samples from Qichun, Ningbo, Xiangyang and Nanyang, located in the south of Huaihe River compared with these from other areas.

[Decipherment and annotation of a manuscript of Tibetan medicine in Dunhuang scroll (Part II)-on prescription].

A manuscript of Tibetan medicine, P. t.1054, written on 4 pattra-leaf-like rectangular papers connected together, is collected in the Volume 10 of Dunhuang Tibetan Manuscripts Preserved in France Scroll. The contents on the front pages of the whole set is on pulse-taking of Tibetan medicine, and the back pages, on prescriptions containing 5 recipes of cathartics and medicinal oils, are included in 16 lines on the remained Scroll dealing with its ingredients, processing method, function and indications which can be differentiated into 5 units. There are altogether 30 drugs applied, including plants, animals and mineral. Among them, almost half are transliterated from foreign languages, and some of them are titled with India, Han region, etc. for distinguishing its producing area and breeds. It is preliminarily probative that this whole Scroll is translated-edited from certain part of an Indian formulary.

[A preliminary evaluation and discussion on the significance of the medical bamboo slips Ci shu (Needling Methods) unearthed from a Han tomb in the Mount. Laoguan, Chengdu].

The compilation of medical bamboo slips, Ci shu(Needling Methods), which was unearthed from a Han tomb in Mt. Laoguan, is a monograph dealing exclusively with the principles of clinical acupuncture manipulations with 40 acupuncture prescriptions, being the earliest unearthed work with documented standard methods of acupuncture manipulations and acupuncture prescriptions in China. The chapter Zhen fang (Acupuncture Prescriptions) is the earliest summary of standardized acupoint prescriptions up to now in China, which is of great significance to clinical practice directly derived from ancient clinical performance of acupuncture. The chapter Zhen fang of the book Ci shu is also one of the earliest ancient clinical reports archiving the acupoint. This may provide invaluable perspectives to the study of the conceptualization, origination, development, formation of theoretical system, and clinical application of acupoints.

[Textual research on Han-Chinese formulae collected in Tubo medical manuscript unearthed in 'Bum-pa-Che Tower].

A Tibetan manuscript with title of Sman-dpyad gces-pa grub-pa kun-'dus-pa in the Collection of Practiced Medical Quintessence, was found in the basement of a Buddhist tower named 'Bum-pa-che in Lhokha (Shannan), Tibet. It contains a purgative recipe of TCM with its title "Powder of Han Region" and several ingredients in Chinese transliteration. Based upon the rule of medieval Chinese system of pronunciation with reference of related texts and studies, a textual research identifies it as a kind of Maren (seed of Cannabis sativa L. ) wan in TCM. Although no identical formulae of its kind has been found in extant literature of TCM prior to the Song Dynasty(960 AD), yet its ingredients, pharmaceutical preparation and efficacy are very similar to the Modified maren wan, the variant formulae of Maren wan in Wai tai mi yao (Arcane Essentials from the Imperial Library) of the Tang Dynasty.

[Discussion on the species and naming of medical bamboo slips unearthed from Han tomb in Laoguanshan].

920 pieces of bamboo slip, including broken bamboo slips, found in Laoguanshan Han tomb, are placed in two locations. In one of the location, 736 pieces, except 20 pieces of " chi jian" , of medical bamboo slips are stored. The Chengdu Municipal Institute of Archaeology and Cultural Relics Protection Center of Jingzhou preliminary sorted out these pieces and tentatively give them the names: Wu se mai zang lun, Bi xi yi lun, Mai si hou, Liu shi bing fang, Bing yuan lun, Zhu bing zheng hou, Jing mai shu, Gui mai shu. Through our comprehensive reading, font comparison, comparison of the contents, and investigation on the texts, it was suggested that the batch of medical slips might be divided into nine kinds of documents, namely, Bi xi zhen fa, Zhen zhi lun, Liu shi bing fang, Zhu bing yi, Zhu bing er, Shi er mai, Bie mai, Ci shu, Ni shun wu se mai zang yan jing shen.

Anti-foot-and-mouth disease virus effects of Chinese herbal kombucha in vivo

Abstract The foot and mouth disease virus (FMDV) is sensitive to acids and can be inactivated by exposure to low pH conditions. Spraying animals at risk of infection with suspensions of acid-forming microorganisms has been identified as a potential strategy for preventing FMD. Kombucha is one of the most strongly acid-forming symbiotic probiotics and could thus be an effective agent with which to implement this strategy. Moreover, certain Chinese herbal extracts are known to have broad-spectrum antiviral effects. Chinese herbal kombucha can be prepared by fermenting Chinese herbal extracts with a kombucha culture. Previous studies demonstrated that Chinese herbal kombucha prepared in this way efficiently inhibits FMDV replication in vitro. To assess the inhibitory effects of Chinese herbal kombucha against FMDV in vitro, swine challenged by intramuscular injection with 1000 SID50 of swine FMDV serotype O strain O/China/99 after treatment with Chinese herbal kombucha were partially protected against infection, as demonstrated by a lack of clinical symptoms and qRT-PCR analysis. In a large scale field trial, spraying cattle in an FMD outbreak zone with kombucha protected against infection. Chinese herbal kombucha may be a useful probiotic agent for managing FMD outbreaks.

[The Codex of the Laboratory of Pharmacognosy of the University of Athens, Part. I]. / Le Codex manuscrit du laboratoire de pharmacognosie de l'Université d'Athènes, I(re) unite.

This work concerns the first part of a manuscript written in the 18th century and stored in the Laboratory of Pharmacognosy of the University of Athens. This part includes an introduction based on the theories of Hippocrates and Galen concerning the four humors: blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile, which should be in balance. During the seasons and depending of the age, these humors are converted to each other. Blood increases in the spring and in children, phlegm is growing in winter and in old man, yellow bile in adulthood and black bile in the fall and the third age. The disease is due to the increase or decrease in these fluids. Many formulas with purgative and cholagogue effects are described for each humor. The chapter ends with advice on the necessary diet, hygiene and lifestyle to keep health care.

Ancient administrative handwritten documents: X-ray analysis and imaging.

Handwritten characters in administrative antique documents from three centuries have been detected using different synchrotron X-ray imaging techniques. Heavy elements in ancient inks, present even for everyday administrative manuscripts as shown by X-ray fluorescence spectra, produce attenuation contrast. In most cases the image quality is good enough for tomography reconstruction in view of future applications to virtual page-by-page `reading'. When attenuation is too low, differential phase contrast imaging can reveal the characters from refractive index effects. The results are potentially important for new information harvesting strategies, for example from the huge Archivio di Stato collection, objective of the Venice Time Machine project.

The physical activity of parturition in ancient Egypt: textual and epigraphical sources.

Many medical and magical texts concerning childbirth and delivery are known from ancient Egypt. Most of them are spells, incantations, remedies and prescriptions for the woman in labour in order to accelerate the delivery or protect the unborn child and parturient. The medical and magical texts do not contain any descriptions of parturition itself, but there are some literary, astronomical and mythological texts, as well as a few incantations, which describe the biological act of childbirth and also miscarriage in more detail. Besides the textual sources, the decoration of temple walls and mammisis (birth houses), as well as illustrations on a birth brick provide an insight into the moment of delivery. In this paper, I focus on the "scientific"depiction of the biological act of childbirth, on how it is described in non-medical sources. Although the main sources are mythological-theological texts with numerous analogies, it is remarkable how many details they provide. They contain descriptions that would be expected in the context of medical sources.

Magical formulas in Pliny's natural history: origins, sources, parallels.

Pliny the Elder was the first Latin medical author to mention magical formulas. His writings refer to twenty-seven in all, thirteen being of the simplest type. The origin is discernible for two-thirds of them. A Latin origin is noted for only two of them, and two are given in Greek The Greek influence seems decisive, with an important role played by the sympathies-antipathies and Pseudo-Democritus trend. Nine magical formulas are attributed to magi and one is also found in the Cyranides (Kupsilonrhoalphavídeltaepsilonzeta) and the Geoponica (gammaepsilonomegapiovichialpha). An author is named for only one incantation: King Attalus III of Pergamum. One carmen probably dates back to a model existing in Classical Greece, which is likely to be true even for one of the incantations in Greek. The text of the latter needs to be better understood in order for one to grasp its principle of action and perhaps its origin.

Assessing the microbiological risk to stored sixteenth century parchment manuscripts: a holistic approach based on molecular and environmental studies.

The microbial risk for the conservation of seven sixteenth century parchment manuscripts, which showed brown discolouration putatively caused by microorganisms, was evaluated using non-invasive sampling techniques, microscopy, studies of surface-associated and airborne microflora with culture-independent molecular methods, and by measuring repository thermo-hygrometric values. Microscopic observations and ATP assays demonstrated a low level of contamination, indicating that the discolouration was not related to currently active microbial colonisation. Nevertheless, a culture-independent molecular approach was adopted to fully characterise surface-associated communities searching for biodeteriogens that could grow under appropriate thermo-hygrometric conditions. Indeed, potential biodeteriogens and microorganisms that are ecologically related to humans were found, suggesting the need to control the conservation environment and improve handling procedures. Microbial loads of air and thermo-hygrometric measurements showed that the repository was not suitable for preventing the microbial deterioration of parchment. A holistic approach to the assessment of risk of microbial deterioration of documents and heritage preservation is proposed for the first time.