Dermatology in Ancient Rome: Medical ingredients in Ovid's "Remedies for female faces".

BACKGROUND: In Roman medicine, face packs, plasters, unguents, and peelings were part of the therapy of dermatological diseases, but also served cosmetic purposes. Ancient medical textbooks inform us about the ingredients for these applications. Beyond medical literature, other genres contain information about dermatological applications. The Roman poet Ovid (43 BC-17 AD) wrote a didactic poem recording five recipes for topical applications for female faces (Medicamina faciei femineae). Researchers debate the relation of Ovid's poem to Roman medicine: Does the poem contain therapeutical or cosmetical information, or is it mere belles lettres? AIMS: The objective of the paper is to conduct a medico-historical classification of Ovid's poem by determining whether the ingredients of Ovid's recipes were thought to be effective by the authors of Roman medical textbooks. METHODS: First, translation and identification of the ingredients were carried out. Second, comparison of the ingredients' functions regarding the therapy of dermatological diseases in two important Roman medical textbooks was realized. For this purpose, several commentaries on the text of Ovid were used and a keyword search in Roman medical textbooks was performed. RESULTS: Ovid's five recipes contain 23 ingredients. All ingredients can be found in medical textbooks. We find that 14 of these ingredients serve cosmetic purposes, 17 serve the therapy of dermatological diseases, and 13 serve both. CONCLUSION: Ovid's recipes contain drugs that were considered effective by the authors of Roman medical textbooks. These drugs were recommended both for therapeutic and cosmetic purposes by the same authors. Therefore, Ovid's didactic poem is not mere belles lettres, but contains serious medical and cosmetical information. As far as we know, it is the first Roman text that contains dermatological recipes.

Historical perspectives on advertising and the meme that personal oral hygiene prevents dental caries.

The consensus of a leading scientific panel in 1930 was that oral hygiene products could not prevent dental caries. Their view was that dental caries prevention required the proper mineralisation of teeth and that vitamin D could achieve this goal. Over a hundred subsequent controlled trials, conducted over seven decades, largely confirmed that this scientific panel had made the right decisions. They had, in 1930, when it comes to dental caries, correctly endorsed vitamin D products as dental caries prophylactics and oral hygiene products as cosmetics. And yet, despite this consistent scientific evidence for close to a century, an opposing conventional wisdom emerged which thrives to this day: oral hygiene habits (without fluoride) protect the teeth from dental caries, and vitamin D plays no role in dental caries prevention. This historical analysis explores whether persistent advertising can deeply engrain memes on dental caries prevention which conflict with controlled trial results. The question is raised whether professional organisations, with a dependence on advertising revenues, can become complicit in amplifying advertised health claims which are inconsistent with the principles of evidence-based medicine.

Historia y actualidad de productos para la piel, cosméticos y fragancias. Especialmente los derivados de las plantas / History and present of skin care products, cosmetics and fragrances. Especially those derived from plants

Objetivo: aportar notas históricas sobre el empleo de los recursos vegetales en la elaboración de productos para el cuidado de la piel y recoger hechos científicos que nos definen la actualidad del tema. Método: búsqueda bibliográfica a través de las bases de datos: Scopus, WOS, Google Scholar y The Plant List y otras web botánicas. Resultados y discusión: el cuidado de la piel y la cosmética forman parte de nuestra vida diaria, de ahí que el uso de preparados para este fin haya aumentado significativamente en los últimos años. A partir de una bibliografía reciente, citamos 78 taxa botánicos (algas, helechos y plantas con semilla, hongos incluidos) relacionados con hechos históricos y conocimientos científicos actuales. Conclusión: Los derivados de los vegetales se consideran seguros para la salud, suponen una gran fuente de metabolitos secundarios y han sido y son materia prima para la elaboración de productos que cuidan la piel

Objective: To provide historical information about the use of vegetal resources in the elaboration of skin care products and to show some scientific facts that define topicality of this subject. Method: bibliographic search through the databases: Scopus, WOS, Google Scholar, The Plant List and other botanicals webs. Results and discussion: skin care and cosmetics are part of our daily life; hence the use of products for this purpose has significantly increased in recent years. From a recent bibliography, we referred 78 botanical taxa (algae, ferns and seed plants, fungi including). The aforementioned we related to historical facts and current scientific knowledge. Conclusion: Derived from plants are considered safe for health; they are a great source of secondary metabolites and have been and are raw material for skin care manufactured products