Arabian medicine

Browne, E.G. Arabian medicine. Cambridge Cambridge Univ P, 1921. 138p. Jabir, Rhazes, etc... 

Campbell, D. Arabian medicine and its influence on the Middle Ages. London Kegan Paul, 1926. 2 vols (208, 235p.)... 

Ghazanfar, S.A., Handbook of Arabian Medicinal Plants, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 1994. 

Ghazanfar, S. A. 1994. Handbook of Arabian medicinal plants. Boca Raton, FL CRC Press. 

Furia, T. E. (ed.). 1975. Handbook of Food Additives, 2nd ed. CRC Press, Cleveland, OH. Furia, T. E. and N. Bellanca (eds.). 1975. Fe-naroli s Handbook of Flavor Ingredients, 2nd ed., Vol. 1. CRC Press, Cleveland, OH. Ghazanfar, S. A. 1994. Handbook of Arabian Medicinal Plants. CRC. Boca Raton, FL. Glasby, J. S. 1976. Encyclopedia of Antibiotics. Wiley-Interscience, London. Glasby, J. S. 1991. Dictionary of Plants Containing Secondary Metabolites. Taylor Francis, New York. 

A Latin manuscript preserved in Liittich has been published by Valentin Rose.44 This is an early fourteenth century copy of a version edited with elaboration and additions by a Spanisli-Arabian writer probably not earlier than the twelfth century.4 The content of this work is naturally quite different from that of the laboratory manuals above described. It is a catalogue of minerals and precious stones, with a summary of their more obvious physical properties, their virtues—medicinal, or occult—for the ancient habit of assigning mystical and supernatural properties to all kinds of materials in nature—so well illustrated in Pliny s records—was well maintained in Arabian natural science, as it was by the early Greek alchemists. Though... 

The psychotropic properties and use of C. edulis have been known for centuries in East Africa, the Middle East, including Ethiopia, Tanzania and North Yemen (S). The medicinal properties of khat for the treatment of depressive states, as an anorectic and stimulant are reported as early as 1237 by the Arabian physician Naguib Ad Din (76). However, khat use has largely lost its therapeutic aspects becoming a popular habit among several million people who consume khat daily because of its euphorigenic and pleasurable effects. Khat is reported to induce a clear anorectic effect (77), together with euphoria. 

N. poeticus and N. pseudonarcissus for this purpose. It is now known that N. poeticus contains 0.012% of the antineoplastic agent narciclasine (68) in the fresh bulb (14,101). Arabian, North African, and Chinese medical practitioners of the Middle Ages continued using Narcissus oil in cancer treatment (389). For example, bulbs of N. tazetta L. var. chinensis, cultivated in China as a decorative plant, were used topically for the treatment of tumors in folk medicine. In this case, pretazettine (64) was established to be one of the antitumor active compounds (133,390). The bulbs of N. tazetta continue to be used in Turkey as a home remedy for the treatment of abscesses because of their antiphlogistic and analgesic properties (391). 

The Persian physician, Abu Bakr Muhammad b. Zakariya ar-Razi, vj j ji l IJjIji (864-925) was one of the first to describe the use of opium as an anaesthetic. Later, at the famous translation school in Toledo, Gerard of Cremona (1114-1187) tra nslated Rail s "Book of Medicine"and thereby made the extensive knowledge of Arabian physicians accessible to Western medicine. 

Khat is a medicine prepared from the fresh leaves and branches of Catha edulis (Celastraceae) and is mainly used as a stimulant in the Arab world [Ij. Khat is also known as cath, quat, chat, jat, and tschatt. C. edulis grows wild in Ethiopia and is cultivated in the southeast area of the Arabian Peninsula and Eastern Africa. 

Department of Pharmacology Therapeutics, College of Medicine Medical Sciences, Arabian Gulf University, PQ Box 22979, Manama, Bahrain. 

Its extracts have been and are still applied in India for centuries as a pest controll especially as - in-secticide/repellent and in medicinal applications (ayurveda/unami). In the 20th century the n. tree has been distributed also to Arabian and African countries as well as to the Caribbean and Pacific region. Since the late 1950 s, the n. (leafs, bark, fruits and their ingredients) found much interest in modem research as a source of active ingredients... 

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