Plants and their uses in dermatological recipes of the Receptarium of Burkhard III von Hallwyl from 16th century Switzerland - Data mining a historical text and preliminary in vitro screening.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Historical texts on materia medica can be an attractive source of ethnopharmacological information. Various research groups have investigated corresponding resources from Europe and the Mediterranean region, pursuing different objectives. Regardless of the method used, the indexing of textual information and its conversion into data sets useful for further investigations represents a significant challenge. AIM OF THE STUDY: First, this study aims to systematically catalogue pharmaco-botanical information in the Receptarium of Burkhard von Hallwyl (RBH) in order to identify candidate plants in a targeted manner. Secondly, the potential of RBH as a resource for pharmacological investigations will be assessed by means of a preliminary in vitro screening. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We developed a relational database for the systematic recording of parameters composing the medical recipes contained in the historical text. Focusing on dermatological recipes, we explored the mentioned plants and their uses by drawing on specific literature. The botanical identities (candidate species) suggested in the literature for the historical plant names were rated based on their plausibility of being the correct attribution. The historical uses were interpreted by consulting medical-historical and modern clinical literature. For the subsequent in vitro screening, we selected candidate species used in recipes directed at the treatment of inflammatory or infectious skin disorders and wounds. Plants were collected in Switzerland and their hydroethanolic crude extracts tested for possible cytotoxic effects and for their potential to modulate the release of IL-6 and TNF in PS-stimulated whole blood and PBMCs. RESULTS: The historical text analysis points up the challenges associated with the assessment of historical plant names. Often two or more plant species are available as candidates for each of the 161 historical plant names counted in the 200 dermatological recipes in RBH. On the other hand, our method enabled to draw conclusions about the diseases underlying the 56 medical applications mentioned in the text. On this basis, 11 candidate species were selected for in vitro screening, four of which were used in RBH in herbal simple recipes and seven in a herbal compound formulation. None of the extracts tested showed a noteworthy effect on cell viability except for the sample of Sanicula europaea L. Extracts were tested at 50 µg/mL in the whole blood assay, where especially Vincetoxicum hirundinaria Medik. or Solanum nigrum L. showed inhibitory or stimulatory activities. In the PBMC assay, the root of Vincetoxicum hirundinaria revealed a distinct inhibitory effect on IL-6 release (IC50 of 3.6 µg/mL). CONCLUSIONS: Using the example of RBH, this study illustrates a possible ethnopharmacological path from unlocking the historical text and its subsequent analysis, through the selection and collection of plant candidates to their in vitro investigation. Fully documenting our approach to the analysis of historical texts, we hope to contribute to the discussion on solutions for the digital indexing of premodern information on the use of plants or other natural products.

Holy Medicine: Patron Saints of Wounds Due to Animal Bites.

The cult of saints in Western Europe developed during the late period of antiquity and the early Middle Ages. Their importance to European society was undeniable; holy medicine was the only hope for people, because there were no doctors. The number of saints had increased over the years, and people sought medical help from them through prayer and other religious practices. Some of the saints became "specialized" in treating various wounds and dermatologic diseases. During our research, we tried to determine whether the cult of saints led to the develop-ment of hospitals that treated skin diseases, as discovered in the Hospital Brother of Saint Anthony. A large number of saints who were patrons of wounds and skin diseases were collected in three studies. In the first report, we presented a great number of saints who were patrons to treat animal bites. The second report presented patron saints of wounds, ulcers, burns, and frostbites; and the third report decsribed saints who treated contagious diseases (such as ergotism, leprosy, and scabies). The phenomenon of holy medicine is part of the history of dermatology and is important due to "specializations," which refer to an understanding of skin diseases and the methods of treating various wounds and dermatologic diseases.

Dresden to "Down Under": The Career of German Dermatologist Erwin Oppenheim.

Erwin Oppenheim (1893-1975) was a successful dermatologist in Dresden, Germany. He with his family fled the country in 1939 because of National Socialism and settled in Melbourne in the Australian state of Victoria. The regulations of Australian universities and medical boards of that era in relation to refugee medicos hindered Oppenheim's registration as a medical practitioner. He was permitted to treat skin conditions, but not allowed to prescribe medications other than some topical preparations. In spite of these restrictions, Oppenheim soon established a busy private practice. He also contributed to dermatology by providing guidance to "Ego Pharmaceuticals," a large company formed by Oppenheim's son and daughter-in-law in 1953 that produces a range of skin and other healthcare products for Australian and global markets.

[Photography, medicine and corporeality: the device of the image in the forms of discursive apprehension of the disease]. / Fotografía, medicina y corporalidad: el dispositivo de la imagen en las formas de aprehensión discursiva de la enfermedad.

To study about and reflect on the disease is to highlight the ways of seeing and saying what can a body and its power to be affected before fingerprints or traces that degrade it. This article exposes epistemological research on social representations brackets (where register know doctor) disease from the registry of Clinical Dermatology in the second half of the 19th century. This is resorted to an analysis of medical photographs preserved in archives of Colombia and Spain taking as discursive forms of seeing and saying the disease who have disfiguring effects in the body.

Estudiar y reflexionar sobre la enfermedad es poner de relieve las formas de ver y decir acerca de lo que puede un cuerpo y su potencia de ser afectado ante las huellas o vestigios que lo degradan. Este artículo expone los soportes epistemológicos de una investigación sobre las representaciones sociales (en la que se inscribe el saber médico) de la enfermedad desde el registro de la dermatología clínica durante la segunda mitad del siglo XIX. Para esto, se recurrió a un análisis de fotografías médicas conservada en archivos de Colombia y España y como horizonte discursivo las formas de ver y decir la enfermedad que tiene efectos deformantes en el cuerpo.