[Notes on a medieval apothecary : Ernulf, a spice merchant from Rennes during the XIIIth Century].

The recent publication of the cartulary of Saint-Melaine abbey in Rennes allowed to deepen our knowledge of the city of Rennes and of the entire region of Upper Brittany. Amidst the hundreds of people's names that were conserved, appears that of Ernulf, piperarius, that we can translate by "pepper" and that we can connect by extension to the world of pharmacists. By chance, the preservation of Middle Ages sources enables us to find his trace in documents from Brittany but also from Anjou. Although it remains impossible to write his biography, the mention of Ernulf in several medieval texts enables us to assess our knowledge on health in Brittany during the Middle Ages. Most of all, these medieval acts quote the oldest " pharmacist" known in the Breton peninsula.

The Roman and Islamic spice trade: New archaeological evidence.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Tropical spices have long been utilized in traditional medicine and cuisine. New archaeological evidence highlights temporal changes in the nature and scale of the ancient spice trade and in the ancient usage of these plants. Furthermore, a study of their 'materiality' highlights that the impact of spices extends beyond their material properties. Here the botanical remains of spices recovered from archaeological excavations at a port active in the Roman and medieval Islamic spice trade are evaluated. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Recent excavations at Quseir al-Qadim, an ancient port located on the Red Sea coast of Egypt, have provided new evidence for the spice trade. Due to the arid conditions ancient botanical remains were preserved in abundance and these included spices, as well as a wide range of other food plants. Quseir al-Qadim was active as a transport hub during both the Roman and Islamic periods (ca. AD 1-250, known as Myos Hormos, and again during ca. AD 1050-1500, known as Kusayr), and the remains thus facilitate a study of temporal change in the trade and usage of these spices. Standard archaeobotanical methods were used to recover, identify and analyze these remains. RESULTS: At least seven tropical spices were recovered from the excavations, as well as several other tropical imports, including black pepper (Piper nigrum), ginger (Zingiber officinale), cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum), turmeric (Curcuma sp.), fagara (cf. Tetradium ruticarpum), myrobalan (Terminalia bellirica and Terminalia chebula) and betelnut (Areca catechu). A marked contrast between the two chronological periods in the range of spices recovered points to changes in the nature and scale of the trade between the Roman and medieval Islamic periods, while differences in the contexts from which they were recovered help to identify temporal changes in the way in which the spices were utilized during those periods. CONCLUSION: Archaeological and textual evidence suggest that in antiquity spices were used in ritual (funeral rites, offerings), in perfumery, and in medicinal remedies, with black pepper the only tropical spice regularly employed in cuisine. By the medieval period the culinary role of spices had grown significantly, both in the Middle East and in Europe, while retaining their importance in medicinal applications. In both time periods they were luxuries available only to the upper strata of society, but the material properties of spices and their elite status made them desirable to a wider section of society. In their pursuit of spices people became entangled in a meshwork of relationships, altered social realities and political power struggles. Globalization is one such entanglement, highlighting that the potency of spices goes far beyond their ability to stimulate our taste buds, delight our sense of smell and cure our ailments.

Health, wellness and the allure of spices in the Middle Ages.

ETHNOPHARMOCOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: During the European Middle Ages aromatic products imported from Asia and Africa were credited with both preventive and curative medical properties. In addition spices provided an image of wellness and as they were expensive and had many uses in cuisine and fragrance, they functioned as prestige consumer goods. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is an effort to look historically at a social and cultural phenomenon for the period roughly A.D. 1200-1500. Sources of information about the demand for and uses of spices include lists of materia medica, medical treatises, cookbooks, religious writings, descriptions of banquets and court ceremonial and literary works showing what might be called aspirational lifestyles. RESULTS: It is important to focus on the demand side of the spice trade rather than simply assuming a consistent demand and looking only at the supply (prices, routes, for example). CONCLUSIONS: The demand for spices must be understood in terms of their attributed medical and wellness powers, but these in turn are related to the mysterious Eastern origins of spices that enhanced their image as elite consumer products and their association with spiritual as well as medical healing.

Scent and synaesthesia: The medical use of spice bags in early China.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: The history of Chinese spices has received increasing attention in recent years, but little research been carried out on where they fit on the food-medicine continuum for early China, during the formation of the classical medical system. This paper describes how the synaesthetic qualities of spices attracted a particular analysis in that emerging system which serves to mark them as different to other medical materials and foodstuffs. We aim to clarify the special role created for spices to accommodate their boundary-crossing synaesthetic action on the body. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This paper analyses the contents of several spice bags excavated in 1972 from a tomb that was closed in the second century BCE. It uses archaeological reports of material culture together with the early Chinese textual record, extant in both manuscripts and received texts, to bring out the role of spices in ritual, food and medicine. RESULTS: Noting that the flavours and aromas of early China were assigned physiological potency in the first centuries BCE, we argue that by medieval times the unique synaesthetic role that spices played in mediating the senses was systematically medicalised. While being deployed for the purpose of curing disease in medicine, they also remained within the realm of everyday healthcare, and religious practice, deployed both as aromatics to perfume the environment, attracting benign spirits, but also to ward off the agents of disease, as well as for enhancing health through their use in cookery. CONCLUSION: While foodstuffs entered the digestive system spices were all considered 'pungent' in the emerging clasical medical system. They acted on the body through the nose and lungs, making them neither food nor drug. This implicit categorisation medicalised spices which, like music, could affect the passions and lighten the spirit, codifying observations about the impact on the body of the ritual environment.

Medieval European medicine and Asian spices.

This article aimed to explain the reasons why Asian spices including pepper, ginger, and cinnamon were considered as special and valuable drugs with curative powers in the Medieval Europe. Among these spices, pepper was most widely and frequently used as medicine according to medieval medical textbooks. We analyzed three main pharmacology books written during the Middle Ages. One of the main reasons that oriental spices were widely used as medicine was due to the particular medieval medical system fundamentally based on the humoral theory invented by Hippocrates and Galen. This theory was modified by Arab physicians and imported to Europe during the Middle Ages. According to this theory, health is determined by the balance of the following four humors which compose the human body: blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. Each humor has its own qualities such as cold, hot, wet, and dry. Humoral imbalance was one of the main causes of disease, so it was important to have humoral equilibrium. Asian spices with hot and dry qualities were used to balance the cold and wet European diet. The analysis of several major medical textbooks of the Middle Ages proves that most of the oriental spices with hot and dry qualities were employed to cure diverse diseases, particularly those caused by coldness and humidity. However, it should be noted that the oriental spices were considered to be much more valuable and effective as medicines than the local medicinal ingredients, which were not only easily procured but also were relatively cheap. Europeans mystified oriental spices, with the belief that they have marvelous and mysterious healing powers. Such mystification was related to the terrestrial Paradise. They believed that the oriental spices were grown in Paradise which was located in the Far East and were brought to the Earthly world along the four rivers flowing from the Paradise.

Medieval European Medicine and Asian Spices / 의사학

This article aimed to explain the reasons why Asian spices including pepper, ginger, and cinnamon were considered as special and valuable drugs with curative powers in the Medieval Europe. Among these spices, pepper was most widely and frequently used as medicine according to medieval medical textbooks. We analyzed three main pharmacology books written during the Middle Ages. One of the main reasons that oriental spices were widely used as medicine was due to the particular medieval medical system fundamentally based on the humoral theory invented by Hippocrates and Galen. This theory was modified by Arab physicians and imported to Europe during the Middle Ages. According to this theory, health is determined by the balance of the following four humors which compose the human body: blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. Each humor has its own qualities such as cold, hot, wet, and dry. Humoral imbalance was one of the main causes of disease, so it was important to have humoral equilibrium. Asian spices with hot and dry qualities were used to balance the cold and wet European diet. The analysis of several major medical textbooks of the Middle Ages proves that most of the oriental spices with hot and dry qualities were employed to cure diverse diseases, particularly those caused by coldness and humidity. However, it should be noted that the oriental spices were considered to be much more valuable and effective as medicines than the local medicinal ingredients, which were not only easily procured but also were relatively cheap. Europeans mystified oriental spices, with the belief that they have marvelous and mysterious healing powers. Such mystification was related to the terrestrial Paradise. They believed that the oriental spices were grown in Paradise which was located in the Far East and were brought to the Earthly world along the four rivers flowing from the Paradise.

Bites, nibbles, sips and puffs: new exotic goods in Norway in the 18th and the first half of the 19th century.

The slow but significant changes in the material culture of European households that took place in the pre-industrial period are visible in several ways, such as in the changing patterns of housing, furnishing and clothing which have been illustrated in several studies. However, most of these studies focus on the pre-industrial economic leaders, often ignoring the changes taking place on the margins of the economic growth centres. This article seeks to rectify this by looking at changes in the material culture in one such 'marginal' country, namely Norway. The goods focused upon in this case are sugar, tobacco and coffee, which are often termed as exotic goods. These were new commodities in the 18th century and precisely because of their novelty and foreign origin, it is in many cases possible to trace how they spread in rural society, as well as how they impacted it. The emphasis has been put on rural areas for the simple reason that this was where the overall majority of Norwegians lived at the time.

"Measuring by the bushel": reweighing the Indian Ocean pepper trade.

Of all the oriental spices, black pepper was the most important until the eighteenth century. The historiography of the pepper trade is characterized by a strong focus on Europe in terms of both its economic significance in the ancient and medieval periods and the struggle for its control in the early modern period. This article, by contrast, seeks to situate the pepper trade firmly in its Asian contexts. It examines the Indian Ocean pepper trade from three perspectives. First, it places the trade in its supply-side context by focusing on the Malabar coast as the primary source of pepper. Second, it examines the relative importance of the different branches of Malabar's pepper trade and highlights the central role played by Muslim mercantile networks. Third, it considers the reconfiguration of these pepper networks in the sixteenth century in the face of aggressive competition from the Portuguese. In their sum, these arguments advocate the need for rethought balances of trade and a reweighted scholarly focus on the pepper trade in its global dimensions.

[Drugs Bazar of Constantinople]. / Le Marché aux drogues de Constantinople.

A long while in The Egyptian Bazaar in Istanbul, which was one of the high place of oriental medicine and pharmacopoeia, were established the most famous apothecaries (aktar), herborists, manufacturers and merchants of perfumes, and so merchants of cotton. With that of Bursa, it was one of the greatest trade center for plants, drugs and exotic spices, uncommon and expensive. The products were landed along the southerly water-side of the Golden Horn. The travellers, who discovered with astonishment all the scents of Orient, the aromatic drugs, the mysterious perfumes, were charmed and most of them described particularly and in details this Drugs Bazar of Constantinople in their travelbooks. To day, the merchants of spices (baharatçi) who are in this place offer to their clients a large choice of aromatic products, homemade specialities and traditional medicines.

Starch fossils and the domestication and dispersal of chili peppers (Capsicum spp. L.) in the Americas.

Chili peppers (Capsicum spp.) are widely cultivated food plants that arose in the Americas and are now incorporated into cuisines worldwide. Here, we report a genus-specific starch morphotype that provides a means to identify chili peppers from archaeological contexts and trace both their domestication and dispersal. These starch microfossils have been found at seven sites dating from 6000 years before present to European contact and ranging from the Bahamas to southern Peru. The starch grain assemblages demonstrate that maize and chilies occurred together as an ancient and widespread Neotropical plant food complex that predates pottery in some regions.

Health benefits of herbs and spices: the past, the present, the future.

UNLABELLED: Herbs and spices have a traditional history of use, with strong roles in cultural heritage, and in the appreciation of food and its links to health. Demonstrating the benefits of foods by scientific means remains a challenge, particularly when compared with standards applied for assessing pharmaceutical agents. Pharmaceuticals are small-molecular-weight compounds consumed in a purified and concentrated form. Food is eaten in combinations, in relatively large, unmeasured quantities under highly socialised conditions. The real challenge lies not in proving whether foods, such as herbs and spices, have health benefits, but in defining what these benefits are and developing the methods to expose them by scientific means. CULTURAL ASPECTS: The place of herbs and spices in the diet needs to be considered in reviewing health benefits. This includes definitions of the food category and the way in which benefits might be viewed, and therefore researched. Research may focus on identifying bioactive substances in herbs and spices, or on their properties as a whole food, and/or be set in the context of a dietary cuisine. THE ROLE OF HERBS AND SPICES IN HEALTH: The antioxidant properties of herbs and spices are of particular interest in view of the impact of oxidative modification of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol in the development of atherosclerosis. There is level III-3 evidence (National Health and Medical Research Council [NHMRC] levels of evidence) that consuming a half to one clove of garlic (or equivalent) daily may have a cholesterol-lowering effect of up to 9%. There is level III-1 evidence that 7.2 g of aged garlic extract has been associated with anticlotting (in-vivo studies), as well as modest reductions in blood pressure (an approximate 5.5% decrease in systolic blood pressure). A range of bioactive compounds in herbs and spices have been studied for anticarcinogenic properties in animals, but the challenge lies in integrating this knowledge to ascertain whether any effects can be observed in humans, and within defined cuisines. Research on the effects of herbs and spices on mental health should distinguish between cognitive decline associated with ageing and the acute effects of psychological and cognitive function. There is level I and II evidence for the effect of some herbal supplements on psychological and cognitive function. There is very limited scientific evidence for the effects of herbs and spices on type 2 diabetes mellitus, with the best evidence being available for the effect of ginseng on glycaemia, albeit based on four studies. More research is required, particularly examining the effects of chronic consumption patterns. With increasing interest in alternatives to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents in the management of chronic inflammation, research is emerging on the use of food extracts. There is level II evidence for the use of ginger in ameliorating arthritic knee pain; however, the improvement is modest and the efficacy of ginger treatment is ranked below that of ibuprofen. More definitive research is required. PUBLIC HEALTH AND DIETARY IMPLICATIONS: Recommendations for intakes of food in the Australian guide to healthy eating do not yet include suggested intakes of herbs and spices. Future consideration should be given to including more explicit recommendations about their place in a healthy diet. In addition to delivering antioxidant and other properties, herbs and spices can be used in recipes to partially or wholly replace less desirable ingredients such as salt, sugar and added saturated fat in, for example, marinades and dressings, stir-fry dishes, casseroles, soups, curries and Mediterranean-style cooking. Vegetable dishes and vegetarian options may be more appetising when prepared with herbs and spices. FUTURE DIRECTIONS: As several metabolic diseases and age-related degenerative disorders are closely associated with oxidative processes in the body, the use of herbs and spices as a source of antioxidants to combat oxidation warrants further attention. Immediate studies should focus on validating the antioxidant capacity of herbs and spices after harvest, as well as testing their effects on markers of oxidation. This will work in parallel with clinical trials that are aiming to establish antioxidants as mediators of disease prevention. From a dietary perspective, the functionality of herbs and spices will be exposed through consideration of their properties as foods. As with most foods, the real benefits of including them in the diet are likely to emerge with a better understanding of the attributes of health that are best supported by food, and in methodological developments addressing the evidence base for their effects. These developments are well underway through evidence-based frameworks for substantiating health claims related to foods. At present, recommendations are warranted to support the consumption of foods rich in bioactive components, such as herbs and spices. With time, we can expect to see a greater body of scientific evidence supporting the benefits of herbs and spices in the overall maintenance of health and protection from disease.

[The Book of the Eparch, by Leo VI: interest for the history of pharmacy]. / Le Livre du Préfet de Léon le sage: intérêt pour l'histoire de la pharmacie et des médicaments.

In 1893, Jules Nicole discovered a greek manuscript, named Genevensis 23, which proved to be the Book of the Eparch. This document contained the regulations for trade guilds in Constantinople, at the end of the IXth century and the beginning of the Xth century. It had been published by Emperor Leo VI, who reigned upon the Byzantine Empire from 886 to 911. Three professions mentioned in this book have some interest for history of pharmacy: wax chandlers, spicers and perfumers. The differences between spicers and perfumers consisted in the kind of products they sold and in the way they weighed these products. Spicers were, at the time, far from pharmacy, because they sold mainly food and no spices, while the perfumers dealt with spices and perfumes. Anyway, none of these professions was involved in preparing medicines. No mention was made of pigmentarioi in the Book of the Eparch and that raised the question of the part really played by these so-called "pigment makers" in the preparation and the dispensation of medicines. The role of physicians remained preeminent in supplying patients with drugs.

[Use of Ancient texts in modern therapeutic research]. / Utilisation des textes de l'Antiquité à la recherche thérapeutique.

Two main purposes were assigned to this study of medicinal prescription of spices at the time of the Roman Empire: analyze Roman pharmacopoeia of spices in reference to modern criteria and assess a new discipline, close to "ethno-botany" and "ethno-pharmacology", aiming to a new approach of drug research: "archeopharmacology". A brief overview is given of the Roman world of spices : all aromatic substances from Orient, India and Far-East held a major place which can only be compared to the role of petroleum in our modern times. The study is conducted on a thesaurus of 2600 quotations from twelve authors: Apicius, Caelius Aurelianus, Cassius Felix, Celsus, Dioscorides, Galen, Marcellus,(Anonymous) Mulonmedicina, Pelagorius, Pliny the Elder, Serenus Sammonicus and Scribonius Largus and a set of 33 medicinal spices among which: cyperus, ferulas (Asa foetida), frankincense, pepper, myrrh and saffron. Medicinal use of spices (mainly for pneumology, dermatology and gastroenterology) do not differ notably from the rest of Roman pharmacopoeia: the main criteria for prescription of spices is not their place of origin but a "therapeutic profile" which is clearly assigned to each substance by tradition. During the last decades, new methods of therapeutic research: ethno-botany and ethno-pharmacology have been used extensively to explore traditional medicines. A new discipline is ready to emerge: "archeo-pharmacology", aiming towards a drug research based on Ancient texts.