PHARMA HISTORY

A preliminary warning

This article contains a wealth of information about medicines discovered and developed over the past 3000 years. Our ancestors were closer to the natural world than we are today and more in tune with their immediate environment. They would have grown many of the plants and herbs required for remedies, or at least known where to find them. Today, most of our medicines come in bottles, vials, jars, blister packs, tubes, sprays or some other convenient package. Even herbal remedies are pre-packaged for convenient and accurate dosage. Nevertheless, over 80% of medicines prescribed by doctors today are of plant origin including most of the `top 50' drugs. Plants heal, but in unskilled hands they can also be very dangerous. We strongly advise against attempts to re-create any of the remedies mentioned in this article. We additionally warn against using herbal remedies with prescribed medicines without professional advice.

Minoan medicines

The fertile, mountainous island of *Crete, which separates the Aegean from the Mediterranean Sea, developed a sophisticated civilisation from about 2500 BCE. This has been named *Minoan, after Minos, the legendary king of Knossos, the island's most important city. Minoans made weapons and tools of copper and then bronze, built palaces for their rulers, and developed writing. They also established colonies on other Aegean islands such as Rhodes, Melos, Ceos, and Thera, as well as the mainland where *Mycenae became an important centre. Palace physicians and community healers used native plants to create their medicines as well as importing others from around the Eastern Mediterranean. Trade between Crete and Egypt flourished. Coriander, safflower, and saffron are mentioned in Minoan palace archives, and by about 1300 BCE, Crete was exporting small jugs to Egypt which probably contained opium dissolved in wine or water. Their size, shape, and colour resemble poppy capsules, some bearing designs suggesting the slits made (in capsules) to extract opium sap, a technique practised by the Minoans. In Egypt, opium was used, amongst other things, to quieten a crying child. The Ebers Papyrus, an Egyptian medical text dated c. 1555 BCE, also mentions a remedy for constipation using beans from Crete. By the late 13th century BCE, the Mycenaeans had developed a highly organised perfume oil industry controlled from the royal palaces and there may also have been some trade with Egypt which later exported perfumes to Greece and Rome.

The pharmakon

The Greek word, pharmakon, referred to a remedy or a charm, whether beneficial or deleterious. From it, came the words `pharmacy', meaning knowledge of drugs or a place where drugs were kept; and `pharmacology', the science of drugs or medicines. The physician, *Hippocrates (c. 450-370 BCE) and his followers, attempted to describe how drugs acted on the body rather than ascribing their effects to magical properties, but they were, nevertheless, cautious about drugs. The potentially dangerous effects of emetics and purgatives encouraged them to refer patients to specialist `root-cutters'. Other groups, such as the Empiricists, (fl. 200 BCE), believed that it was idle to speculate on how drugs worked. It was important only to know that a particular drug had once worked. The Greeks knew and used potent drugs such as wine, opium, hemlock, and mandrake.
The conquests of *Alexander the Great (reigned 336-323 BCE) extended Greek influence from the Aegean basin, Sicily and south Italy to northern India and Mesopotamia. New drugs soon found their way to the important Greek centres, particularly from Egypt, which traded with Africa and India. The Egyptian port of *Alexandria became the capital of the *Hellenistic (`Greekish') world, and Egyptian drugs were praised. Herophilus of Chalcedon (c. 330-260 BCE), who practised in Alexandria, called drugs `the hands of the gods'. One of his favourites was hellebore, a toxic remedy used as an emetic.

Roman medicines and prescribers

The greatest physicians in Rome were nearly all Greek, and included Pedanius Dioscorides (CE c. 60) and *Galen of Pergamum (CE 129-c. 216). In large cities, according to Galen, there were many healers, not all reputable. Among those who prescribed medicines were boxing trainers, grooms, school teachers, wise women, men and women of the gentry, itinerant healers, and of course, doctors. There were similarities between Greek and Roman medicine including attention to diet and lifestyle rather than drug treatment, although drugs were preferable to surgery. They were thought to produce qualitative changes within the body such as by heating or cooling although relatively little attention was paid to dosage. However, between 100 BCE-CE 100, the number and complexity of drugs imported into large cities such as *Alexandria and *Rome substantially increased.
*Galen, himself, travelled widely in Egypt and learned about the drugs imported from India. He prescribed opium for the emperor, *Marcus Aurelius (CE 121-180), who began each day with a portion dissolved in warm wine. Galen's wealth and reputation enabled him to obtain costly drugs such as Indian lycium, from the emperor's suppliers. Lycium was extracted from shrubs of the Berberis family and highly regarded in the treatment of eye diseases for which there were also many plant or mineral-based ointments including one made from copper, zinc, opium and mercuric sulphide. Galen began classifying drugs into 12 grades based on degrees of action, but only managed to grade 161 out of 475 botanical simples. Nevertheless, he added 36 extra ingredients to the reknowned cure-all, theriac, although the original version ascribed to King Mithridates IV (120-63 BCE) of Pontus in Asia Minor, had contained 41.Along with theriac, *Galen's hiera picra, which contained aloes, spices and herbs compounded into an electuary (a thickened, sweetened fruit pur@eacute;e containing pulverised drugs, often made in a mould), and terra sigillata, remained popular down to the 17th century.

King Mithridates VI of Pontus (120-63 BCE), in collaboration with his private physician, is reputed to have compounded 41 substances into an antidote against poisoning which became known as the mithridate. Mithridates created his potion so that he could make himself impervious to any poisonous substance, a precaution against an assassination attempt. Mithridates was one of Rome's fiercest opponents. His expansionist policies into Asia Minor and Greece brought him into conflict with Rome in 88-85 BCE, but he was defeated by the Roman general, *Sulla (c. 138-78 BCE). There were 2 further wars before he was overpowered by Lucullus and *Pompey (106-48 BCE), after which he fled to the Crimea, and attempted to take his own life by swallowing poison. Ironically, this failed and he was forced to die by the sword.
The formula for the mithridate was brought to Rome by *Pompey after the king's defeat, and a number of new ingredients were added by Andromachus (c. 68 CE), one of Nero's private physicians. *Galen passed it on under the name `Theriac of Andromachus' and brought the total of ingredients up to 77, one of the most important being flesh of vipers. These were mixed with honey or another sweet substance and taken by rubbing on the teeth and gums. Galen recommended theriac as an antidote for snake bites but in the course of time, theriac became the panacea for curing all diseases. In many cities including Montpellier, Toulouse, and Venice (its English name was `Venice Treacle'), theriac was prepared in public under official supervision in order to prevent fraudulent manufacture.

One of its ingredients was the rare and expensive `balsam of Mecca' or `balm of Gilead', a resin obtained from various balsam trees in Syria where the Roman emperors owned their own groves in order to maintain personal supplies. By the 1540s, traditional theriac became impossible to recreate since many of its ingredients could not be identified and over 20 substitutes were used. In 1566, Francesco Calzolari, a botanist-pharmacist from Verona, reduced this to 3 substitutes, and the `new' theriac was declared equal to Galen's. In his treatise, De peste (1639), John Woodall (1556-1643), an English surgeon-general to the *East India Company, recommended use of Theriac Andromach or true Venice Treacle during epidemics of bubonic plague. A version made in London was `Mithridate Democratis' whilst another, `Theriac Diatessaron' was known as `poor man's Treacle'. Theriac is still sold in Near Eastern suqs .
Terra sigillata

Terra sigillata means `earth which has been stamped with a seal'. It was reputedly first used on the Greek island of Lemnos to treat the foetid wounds of Philoctetes, one of the heroes of the Trojan War. In classical times, there was a shrine to Aesculapius on the island, and the priestess of this shrine had the exclusive right to work the clay which was stamped with a seal (terra sigillata). She did this whilst performing special rites and then distributed the clay tablets amongst the sick. During the *Roman Empire, terra sigillata from Arezzo was highly valued, and used not only to make medicinal pastilles but for decorating vessels. In Medieval Europe, white clay from the `Milk Grotto' in Bethlehem made a terra sigillata called `Mary's Milk'. It was highly prized by mothers who were having difficulties breast feeding.

Terra sigillata was also believed to be effective against plague and was in great demand during major epidemics. There was always a constant search for new sources of supply, and medicinal clay was discovered in Tuscany, Malta, Hungary, France and Silesia. Terra miraculosa, found in Saxony at the end of the 16th century, became extremely popular and was used to make drinking vessels. Anyone who drank from these vessels would be immune to any kind of poisoning, and water kept in them was a remedy for snake bites.
Medicine on the march

Both Pedanius Dioscorides (c. 60 CE), and the natural historian, Pliny (c. 23/24-79), produced major compilations of medicinal substances. Dioscorides', De materia medica (c. 64), contained almost 600 remedies, and Pliny recorded 900 in his Natural History. Books like these would certainly have been important additions to the medical equipment carried by physicians accompanying the Roman armies. Plant seeds, found in Britain and northern Europe, may also have been carried from place to place so that physicians could plant botanical gardens at encampments.

Some of the plant medicines or seeds found at Roman sites include dock, which was used to treat `falling teeth' and paralysis of the legs (possibly scurvy); celery - a diuretic; henbane - a pain-killer and sleeping draught; plaintain - a treatment for phthisis (pulmonary tuberculosis), haemorrhage, dysentery, and elephantiasis; St John's wort - used to expel bladder stones; fenugreek - used as both an enema and poultice as well as a specific for pleurisy and pneumonia; figs and horehound - both cough remedies; centaury - used for eye diseases and as an antidote to snake-bite. Roman soldiers also received a daily ration of liquorice to allay thirst on long marches, when they were sometimes required to cover 30 miles a day. Garlic was employed both as a food and as a wound salve, and pain in the joints was relieved by application of stinging nettle.

Dioscorides' De materia medica

Dioscorides arranged his major study, De materia medica (c. 64 CE), according to drug properties to help physicians choose the correct ingredients. The work, hand-written in Greek, was the product of a lifetime's study, and superseded all existing herbals. From an early date, versions of De materia medica included illustrations of plants, and was the basic source of plant knowledge for 1500 years. Until the invention of printing in the 15th century, copies of De materia medica were written and illustrated by hand. A particularly fine copy, the `Vienna Dioscorides' (c. 512 CE), was made in Constantinople for Princess Anicia Iuliana, daughter of a former Roman emperor. Later, the book went through some 70 printed editions in Europe.

De materia medica included information on aromatic herbs, juices, oils, salves, seeds, shrubs, roots and trees. It also gave details about remedies from animal products, wines, minerals, and salts of lead and copper. Dioscorides named about 600 plants. He discussed their use in treatments, harvesting and storage techniques, and possible adulterants. Cinnamon and cassia were recommended for internal inflammations, snake bites, runny nose and menstrual disorders, whilst intermittent fevers responded to bed bugs mixed with meat and beans. Herbs, like the bramble could be used for dying hair, stopping diarrhoea, easing menorrhagia, strengthening gums, healing mouth ulcers as well as `running ulcers'. Powerful pain-killers or anodynes could be made from white mandrake or henbane, a narcotic of the belladonna family. Peppercorns, ginger, cumin, caraway, and mustard were used in remedies as well as cooking.
Mandrake for a dog's life

The mandrake (Mandragora officinarum) plant was highly prized by Babylonian and Egyptian physicians for its narcotic action. The Egyptians also believed that it possessed aphrodisiac properties and promoted conception. The Greek Hippocratic writers recommended a small dose in wine to relieve the deepest depression and anxiety, and it was mentioned by Pedanius Dioscorides (c. CE 60) in his botanical compendium, De materia medica. He commented on its usefulness as a strong pain-killer because it induced sleep during surgical procedures, but it also promoted abortion. As an unguent, it was used for skin conditions such as erysipelas, tumours, ulcers, and snake bites. The wetted root, when bound together with ivory for 6 hours, would soften the ivory and allow it to be carved more easily.

According to the Roman encylopaedist, Aulus Cornelius *Celsus (25 BCE-CE 50), a potent hypnotic could be prepared by mixing mandrake with opium, henbane, and wine. The shape of the rhizome was believed to resemble a man and the Romans offered specific instructions for digging up the root. A man was not do it because it would endanger his life. Instead, it was recommended that the leafy part of the plant be tied to a black dog which was encouraged to pull the mandrake out of the earth. At the very moment of the plant's departure from the soil, it would utter a terrible shriek and the dog would fall dead on the spot. The root-cutter would have plugged his ears with wax beforehand in order to avoid the same fate as the dog.
Mandrake - Hannibal's weapon

There is a legend that the Carthaginian general, *Hannibal (247-c. 183 BCE), overwhelmed an army of African rebels by feigning retreat whilst leaving behind jars of wine infused with mandragora. The wine reduced the rebels to a state of stupor, after which Hannibal's troops returned for the kill. Mandrake, itself, could also be lethal. A decoction of mandrake and wine, known as `death wine', was used as a suicide potion in Rome. Sponges soaked in death wine would also be offered to crucifixion victims because the potion induced a death-like sleep which alleviated pain and suffering. Mandrake was an important and expensive plant throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance but its value was increased by dealers who claimed that it would only grow under gallows at the feet of a hanged man. It was an essential ingredient in the notorious witches' unguent, and also retained its reputation as an aphrodisiac.

Worn as an amulet, mandrake protected from sickness and brought wealth and happiness. The Persian physician, *Avicenna (980-1037), recommended its use before surgery. Even amputations, performed under the influence of mandragora, were reputed to be painless. Surgeons of the 13th-15th centuries prepared `sleeping sponges' which were soaked in solutions containing mandrake, henbane, opium, hemlock, and other narcotic extracts, before being placed over the mouth and nose of patients about to undergo surgery. When Nicholas *Culpeper (1616-1654) published his herbal, The English physician, in 1652, mandrake was simply mentioned as an emetic and a purgative. In 1888, Sir Benjamin Ward Richardson (1828-1896) identified the presence of alkaloids in the plant which were later identified as hyoscine and hyoscyamine.
Monastic medicines

In 312 CE, the Roman emperor, *Constantine (d. 337 CE), was converted to Christianity, which, by the following year, was recognised as the official religion of the Roman Empire. Constantine's capital, *Constantinople (formerly Byzantium), became the centre of the eastern Church although the bishop of Rome remained the most important figure in the western Church. The two halves of the Empire gradually drew apart. In the west, after CE 500, a small number of Greek texts from *Galen and *Hippocrates were translated into Latin and studied in the monasteries of Europe. Most of the educated classes were clergy whose approach to healing was based primarily on the concept of Christian charity. The Lorsch Book of Medicine (c. 795), written by monks in the Benedictine Abbey of Lorsch in southwest Germany, combined ancient texts with a herbal.

In England, Benedict Biscop (fl. 670) founded the Benedictine monastery at *Jarrow, Northumbria, and collected the finest library outside Italy. His monks, including the Venerable *Bede (c. 673-735), possessed copies of the same medical works as their intellectual contemporaries in Europe. Many monasteries had buildings for housing the sick, and a medicinal herb garden or herbularius where the herbs not available in the local fields and woodlands were grown. Monks imported many new plants, and the Benedictine monks were mainly responsible for bringing Roman horticultural techniques from Italy to the rest of Europe. Drugs were usually `simples' (containing 1 ingredient only) and mostly of plant origin. The entire plant or parts of it, such as roots, leaves or seeds, were used in the preparation. Prescription measurements were not generally precise. A handful, a bundle, or a cupful often sufficed.
Arab-Islamic medicine

Medicine practised in the medieval Arab-Islamic world developed from that of Greece and Rome, and some of those texts were translated into Arabic. The rise of Arabic pharmacology began in the 9th century and brought together botany, zoology, chemistry, toxicology, and materia medica. The lands of the Middle East which included Syria, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Persia, and Iraq, contained plants, animals, and minerals not found elsewhere, and from the 8th century, the Arabs dominated trade in the Indian Ocean and the caravan routes from India and Africa. A number of new drugs were imported and added to their extensive range of medicaments. These included benzoin, camphor, senna, sandalwood, nutmeg, musk, tamarind, clove, and ambergris. Drug lore was mostly plant-based and the use of minerals was uncommon.

Nevertheless, animal products such as milk, meat, gall, and urine were used extensively. The leaves of the fragrant arak bush were simmered in camel urine to produce a treatment for scrofula. Careful attention to diet as in the Greek and Latin tradition, also served a medical purpose.
The pharmacies of Baghdad

The capital of the Arab-Islamic empire was *Baghdad which, founded in 762, became a fabulously wealthy cultural centre with over a million residents, perhaps the largest city in the world. The Arab pharmacy as an institution first came into existence in Baghdad. One of the reasons for this was the advent of polypharmacy with medicines sometimes containing over 100 individual ingredients. The Persian physician, Ibn Sina (*Avicenna, 980-1037), included both the simple (containing 1 ingredient only) and compound drugs of Arabic medicine in his Canon of Medicine which was translated into Latin during the 12th century by Gerard of Cremona (c. 1114-1187) in *Toledo. The Andalusian scholar, Ibn al-Baytar (d. 1248), listed over 3000 plants, animals, and minerals in his materia medica, including 800 botanicals.

Other important pharmacy texts included al-Biruni's, Book of pharmacy in the healing art (11th century), and Handbook for the apothecary shop, written in 1259 by Abu al-Muna Kohen al-'Attar, a Jewish pharmacist working in Cairo. The Arabs introduced and refined such alchemical techniques as crystallisation, evaporation, filtration, distillation, and sublimation. The word `drug' is of Arabic origin, and the alembic, from the Arab word al-anbiq meaning `a vase', was first used for distillation at this time. The word al-cohol, meaning `all things very fine' originally referred to finely ground galena and antimony sulphide used as eye make-up. The Arabs were also masters at preparing fragrant essences, particularly rose-water.
Constantine the African

Arab communities settled along the southern Italian coast during the early 10th century and traded with *Byzantium and North Africa. The medical school at *Salerno, founded in the mid-10th century, introduced Arabic medicine into Western Europe. An important translator of Arabic medical texts was Constantine the African, (c. 1020-1087), a Tunisian born in Carthage. Constantine travelled throughout the Near East as a merchant before becoming a monk at the Benedictine monastery of Monte Cassino, an important intellectual centre between Rome and Naples. He translated from Arabic into Latin many Greek medical texts, and his drug book, the Antidotarium, was widely copied.

European apothecaries

By the 11th century, most learned physicians had at least one pharmacopoeia or book of recipes for the preparation of medicines, and many probably made their own medicines. Others used the services of apothecaries. The word apothecary, or `storeman', was first applied to druggists in Venice where large drug stores served as repositories for medicines brought from the Greek and Arab world. The travels of Marco *Polo (1254-1324) and other merchants brought drugs and spices from the Far East. As towns flourished, apothecaries and drug merchants united to form guilds such as the one established in Verona in 1221. Ten years later, Emperor Frederick von Hohenstaufen issued a decree in the Kingdom of Sicily, directing that there should be a distinction between physicians and apothecaries.
The alchemists

Alchemy sought for the ultimate perfection or truth in nature. For metals, this was gold, and for man it was longevity or immortality. The idea that nature could be manipulated and mastered was new to Renaissance philosophy and not easily assimilated into Christian teaching which emphasised God's providence of the future. Many distinguished natural philosophers were alchemists. Albertus Magnus (1193-1280), was a German Dominican monk who studied medicine in Padua and taught in Cologne, Würzburg and Strasbourg. He was an observant botanist and used mineral remedies such as pulverised chrysolite for treating scabies, and haematite for disorders of the bladder. Raymond Lull (1235-1316), of Spain, studied medicine in Paris and Montpellier and pioneered the preparation of tinctures and quintessences. Another Spaniard, Arnold of Villanova (d. 1319), advocated alchemic remedies to conserve youth.

During the 12th century, alchemy spread from the Arab world to Western Europe through North Africa, Spain, and Sicily. It had a mystical side but it was also a practical science closely linked to medicine, and its processes became important in the preparation of drugs, and later, in chemistry. The alchemists' ovens, flasks, retorts, and crucibles formed the basis of chemical apparatus used for the following centuries. Precious drugs included pulverised pearl. Silver and gold featured prominently in the preparation of antidotes, and drinkable gold was a principle related to the `Great Elixir' or magistery - the `master principle of nature'. The production of gold from base materials was based on the ideas of the Greek philosopher, *Aristotle (384-322 BCE), who taught that all substances were different forms of the same fundamental material called materia prima.
Paracelsus and the doctrine of signatures

Theophrastus Philippus Aureolus Bombastus von Hohehhneim (1493-1541) was born in Switzerland, the son of a physician. He was contemptuous of the medicine taught in universities and never accepted the authority of Greek and Arabic writers, although he was influenced by alchemy and mysticism. In 1527, he was appointed town physician at Basle, Switzerland, and adopted the name Paracelsus. Although required to teach at the medical faculty, he refused to lecture in Latin, and publicly burned Avicenna's Canon of medicine, for which he was forced to leave Basle. Paracelsus believed that the universe (macrocosm) and the body (microcosm) were interlinked - that man and nature were locked into one interacting world. His `doctrine of signatures' linked macrocosm and microcosm by identifying the curative power of plants through their similarity to parts of the body.

The leaves of lungwort (Pulmonaria officinalis) resembled lungs and were used for chest diseases; the root of the orchid looked like a testicle and could cure testicular ailments; the bloom of eyebright (Euphrasia officinalis) appeared like an eye and was good for eye diseases. The walnut resembled the brain and might cure its diseases while the walnut husk was used to treat head wounds. Yellow plants such as saffron and celandine were remedies for jaundice, spotted plants cured spots, red plants treated bloodlessness, and so on. Nature had also placed remedies in convenient places. Dock leaves grew next to nettles because they took away the sting of nettle rash. Willow bark treated intermittent fevers (malaria) because the trees grew in marshy places where such fevers were common. This was part of a general belief that the world was made for the benefit of humanity.

Healing and testing vessels

Healing vessels were special containers, often made from rare and exotic objects such as oyster shells, ostrich eggs, animal horns, and terra sigillata. When used to store medicines, they were believed to impart special curative properties to the potion. However, they were also employed for testing mixtures since they were supposed to indicate the presence of a poisonous substance. Goblets and spoons used for testing purposes were often made of the fabled `unicorn' horn (usually the tusk of the Arctic narwhal), which was thought to sweat when it came into contact with poison. Unicorn horn was also the most prized of animal horns for the manufacture of healing vessels. Two commercial forms, unicornu marinum and fossile were sold in pharmacies. Powdered unicorn's horn was used as an ingredient in medicines and this was commonly ground from the tusk of the Arctic narwhal.

The rare and exotic nature of unicorn's horn imbued it with powerful healing properties although the London physician, Nathanial Hodges (1629-1688), who remained in the city during the *Great Plague of 1665, believed that all medicines were useless against the pestilence including unicorn's horn and the oriental bezoar. Healing vessels made of tortoise shell were very expensive. The tortoise was a symbol of fertility and longevity, and both the shell and the flesh were prized as tonics. Mother-of-pearl shells made healing vessels which strengthened the heart. Quartz was effective against eye diseases, scrofula, heart, and stomach disorders. It was also used for making testing goblets. The curative properties of vessels made from gold and silver were related to their importance in alchemy as symbols of revivification.
Oriental bezoar

The word `bezoar' comes from the Persian, meaning antidote to poison. Bezoars were ball-shaped concretions composed of hair, fibres, and other substances found in the stomachs of animals, particularly ruminants. True bezoar comes from an oriental species of goat, Capra aegagrus, and was introduced into Europe by the Arabs. Powdered bezoar was dissolved in wine to treat cases of poisoning, and possession of this costly stone was reputed to afford protection against calamity. Small bezoars were used as amulets and often set into decorative metal jewellery.

Medicines from the New World

The voyage to America, in 1492, by the Genoese explorer, Christopher *Colombus (1451-1506), and subsequent trans-Atlantic journeys by explorers such as Walter *Raleigh (1552-1618), brought many new drugs into Europe. These included sarsaparilla, coca, cacao, tobacco, guaiacum wood, peyote, sassafras, capsicum, vanilla, Jesuit's bark, and ipecacuanha (meaning `the little plant which grows by the wayside and causes vomiting'). Ipecacuanha was used not only as an emetic but also to cure diarrhoea. Jesuit's bark proved to be a specific for intermittent fever (malaria) which was common in Europe at the time. Tobacco was praised by Spanish physician Nicolas Monardes (fl. 1540) as a treatment for toothache, bad breath, chilblains, worms, joint pains, cold swellings, poisoned wounds, kidney stones, and weariness.
Medicines from the New World

The voyage to America, in 1492, by the Genoese explorer, Christopher *Colombus (1451-1506), and subsequent trans-Atlantic journeys by explorers such as Walter *Raleigh (1552-1618), brought many new drugs into Europe. These included sarsaparilla, coca, cacao, tobacco, guaiacum wood, peyote, sassafras, capsicum, vanilla, Jesuit's bark, and ipecacuanha (meaning `the little plant which grows by the wayside and causes vomiting'). Ipecacuanha was used not only as an emetic but also to cure diarrhoea. Jesuit's bark proved to be a specific for intermittent fever (malaria) which was common in Europe at the time. Tobacco was praised by Spanish physician Nicolas Monardes (fl. 1540) as a treatment for toothache, bad breath, chilblains, worms, joint pains, cold swellings, poisoned wounds, kidney stones, and weariness.

In 1558, Spain and Portugal became the first countries to introduce tobacco smoking (initially, for medicinal purposes) but most other countries followed by about 1600. Initially, the Spanish *Inquisition considered tobacco smoking to be a mark of possession since only Satan could confer upon humans the power to exhale smoke through the mouth. By 1612, however, the American states of Virginia, Carolina, and Maryland had begun mass cultivation of the tobacco plant, and, within a few years, Virginia was producing 35 million kilos of tobacco a year. During the 17th century, shipping of tobacco assisted in the development of Britain's Merchant Navy.
Jesuit's bark and the Countess of Chinchón

Jesuit's bark was discovered in 16th century Peru by Spanish missionaries who named it árbol de calenturas or fever tree. In about 1630, the Countess of Chinchón, wife of the Viceroy of Peru, fell ill with a tertian fever (malaria). According to legend, the Governor of Loja, south of Lima, sent her some powdered bark of the fever tree, with which she was cured. She was so grateful that she ordered supplies to be sent to Lima where the people suffered much from agues. The export of Jesuit's bark to Europe began sometime around 1653, and by 1677, it had entered the London Pharmacopoeia as Peruvian bark (cortex Peruvianus). In 1656, the scientific adventurer, Sir Kenelm Digby, who had lately returned from the Continent, wrote of its curative properties in intermittent fevers. Malaria had also become common in England, and was most common in the Fens, Thames estuary, and coastal marshes of the southeast.

By 1656, Peruvian bark was advertised in the London weekly, Mercurius Politicus, but its use was sometimes controversial, since not everyone who was treated recovered. When an Alderman of the City of London died, his demise was attributed to Peruvian bark. Oliver *Cromwell (1599-1658), who died of fever in September 1658, was reputedly offered the remedy but refused it. In fact, the importance of its continual use in malarial fevers, which notoriously recurred, may not have been fully appreciated. By 1665, the London physician, Thomas Sydenham (1624-1689), who practised in the fever-ridden district of Westminster, recorded the use of Peruvian bark in his Methodus Curandi Febres.
Jesuit's bark and Sir Robert Talbor

In about 1670, an apothecary named Robert Talbor (1642-1681), established a practice in Essex, one of the malarial areas of southeast England. He developed a secret remedy with which he was able to cure the fever of a French officer who had been set ashore in Essex. When the officer spent a duty week at the Court of King *Charles II (reigned 1660-1685), he related the story of his miraculous recovery. Charles asked the *Royal Society of London (to which he had granted a royal charter in 1662), to experiment with Talbor's remedy, and later appointed him a court physician. In 1678, Talbor was knighted, and the following year, cured the king of a malarial fever. He then spent time in the royal households of France and Spain, and eventually sold the recipe for his medicine to the French king, *Louis XIV (reigned 1638-1715), on condition that it should not be revealed until after his death.

When the secret ingredients were published, one turned out to be Peruvian bark. In 1742, the Swedish botanist, Carl *Linnaeus (1707-1778), re-named the bark, Cinchona officinalis, after the now legendary Countess of Chinchón (the `h' was dropped), and during the 1820s, two French chemists identified its alkaloid and named it quinine. Cinchona plantations were established around the world, particularly in British India and Dutch Java, and in 1845, quinine was described as the prime factor in allowing `the white man's conquest of Black Africa'. By the 1940s, quinine had been synthesised to produce important anti-malarial drugs such as chloroquine.Herbals and country gardens

As more drugs were discovered, the pharmacy literature grew. Otto Brunfels (1488-1534), Hieronymus Bock (1498-1554), and Leonhart Fuchs (1501-1566), were important German botanists who published well illustrated herbals with accurate drawings and descriptions of remedies. Fuchs was also professor of medicine at the University of Tübingen. The work of the Basle physician and botanist, Caspar Bauhin (1550-1624) became important for identifying vegetable materia medica, and he described 6000 plant specimens against Brunfels' 258. Nicholas Culpeper (1616-1654) published his herbal, The English physician, in 1652, and it became the first medical book to be published in North America (Boston 1708).

John Gerard, English botanist and physician, published The Herball or General Historie of Plantes in 1597, which was richly illustrated with plants grown in his London garden. He became superintendent of the gardens owned by Queen Elizabeth's most trusted minister, Sir William *Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, 1521-1598. Large estates, like Burghley's, often had their own still rooms where cordial waters or concentrated oils were prepared, and most households made up medicines from local plants and other ingredients. Families, friends and neighbours often swapped drug recipes or medicines. Servants would prepare fragrant closet bags filled with dried herbs such as tansy, mint, lavender, southernwood, sweet woodruff, hops, and wormwood. Queen Elizabeth liked to have meadowsweet in her rooms, but other herbs such as marjoram, balm, and hyssop were strewn on floors.

Berlanjut Ya.......Mo pulang dulu nich...dah capek..Besok dilanjutin...bye..bye..