Arab physicians

Opium is the dried, powdered sap of the unripe seed pod of Papaver somniferum, a poppy plant indigenous to Asia minor. Theophrastus described its medical properties in the third century BC, but the Sumerians, ca BC 4000, probably perceived its utility. Arab physicians knew of the dmg, and Arab traders carried it to the Orient where it was used as a treatment for dysentery. Paracelsus is credited with repopularizing the dmg in western Europe in the early sixteenth century by formulating opium into "laudanum", which is still in use. More than 20 different alkaloids (qv) of two different classes comprise 25% of the weight of dry opium. The benzylisoquinolines, characterized by papaverine [58-74-2] (1.0%), a smooth muscle relaxant, and noscapine [128-62-1] (6.0%), an antitussive agent, do not have any analgesic effects. The phenanthrenes, the second group, are the more common and include 10% morphine (1, = R = H), 0.5% codeine [76-57-3], C gH2 N03, (1, R = H, R = CH3), and 0.2 thebaine [115-37-7], C 2H2 N03, (2). 

The medical use of opium as a pain-relieving drug dates back to the third century. Arab physicians used extracts of the oriental poppy to treat diarrhoea and probably introduced it to the Far East. However, because of its erratic absorption from the gastrointestinal tract, its use as an effective analgesic only became possible with the introduction of the hypodermic syringe in the middle of the last century. 

Nutmeg appears in the Hindu Pharmacopoeia as a treatment for fever, asthma and heart disease. Since the seventh century A.D., Arab physicians have used it for digestive disorders, kidney disease and lymphatic ailments. Yemeni men are said to consume nutmeg to increase and maintain their sexual vigor. 

Although sometimes called the "wine of Haydar", hashish was known to the Arabs long before its alleged discovery by the ascetic monk. In the tenth century A.D., an Arab physician, Ibn Wahshiyah, wrote of it in his book On Poisons, claiming that the odor of hashish was lethal ... 

While Ibn Wahshiyah was more ignorant than knowledgeable of the properties of hashish, he was at least superficially familiar with some of its effects. In general, however, Arab physicians before and after Ibn Wahshiyah had very little to say about the medicinal virtues of cannabis and most of what they did say was taken from Galen. 

Paul of Aegina was the last of the physicians of the Byzantine culture to practice in Alexandria, which fell to the Arabs in his professional lifetime in 642 ad. He refers to both mithridatium and ther-iac. Paul of Aegina was a link between Greek medicine and Mohammedan medicine. His book was used by Rhazes (854-930 ad), one of the greatest of the Arab physicians. Avicenna (980-1037 ad) approved of mithridatium as an antidote to poisons, and Maimonides, a Jew bom in Moslem Spain, was also familiar with mithridatium. Mithridatium re-entered Western medicine culture by two routes. A Saxon leechbook of the eleventh century records that Abel, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, sent mithridatium or theriac to King Alfred the Great, who died on 26 October 899 (Stenton, 1947). 

As early as 2500 BC the Chinese employed gold for biological benefit (7 ). Ancient Arabic physicians also record its benefit. Gold was revered in medieval medicine and held an honored place in pharmacopoeias of those days. Pliney describes manifold efficacious uses of gold in wounded persons, to ward off sorcerous curses in ashen form... 

Roger Bacon, like many other medieval alchemists, found the key to alchemy in a book called Sirr al-Asrar or Secretum secretorum Secret of Secrets) by the great Arabic physician Abu Bakr Mohammed ar-Razi (865-925 CE). After it appeared in about 1220 CE, Sirr al-Asrar became one of the most widely read books of the middle ages. ar-Razi classified minerals into six divisions ... 

Arab physicians used mercuric chloride for the treatment of wounds. 

The related sennosides, glycosides A, B, C and D, occur in amounts of 1.5-3% in the leaves of Egyptian senna shrubs that are cultivated primarily in India. Senna leaves were previously used by Arab physicians as a laxative drug and digestive stimulant. Heterobianthrones sennosides A (meso-derivative, 9-169) and B (trans-derivative, 9-170) are bianthrone glycosides derived from aloe-emodin and rhein, homobianthrones sennosides C meso-derivative) and D (tra s-derivative) are derived only from rhein. 

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