De Materia Medica

Plate 1. Ethnobotany and Background. Convolvulaceae, the botanical name for the morning glory family, derives from the Latin convolve, referring to its growth of intertwining vines (A Heavenly blue, Ipomoea tricolor). The purgative properties of the Mexican roots were readily accepted in Europe when introduced in the sixteenth century, since pre-Christian folk tradition had already proclaimed the virtues of skammonia as found in Dioscorides work De Materia Medica, ca. 50-68 a.d. 

Asbestos has been known and used for millennia (Theophrastus, fourth century B.C.). The subject of much scholarly comment since Pliny s Natural History and Dioscorides De Materia Medica in the first century, asbestos was known through a large quantity of fact and fable by the late seventeenth century when the modem era of mineral materials began (Plot, 1686 Ciam-pini, 1701 Gimma, 1730 Ledermuller, 1775 and Schroeter, 1772). 

Documentation of the use of natural substances for medicinal purposes can be found as far back as 78 a.d., when Dioscorides wrote De Materia Medica, describing thousands of medicinal plants. This treatise included descriptions of many medicinal plants that remain important in modem medicine today, not because they continue to be used as crude drag preparations, but because they serve as the source of important pure chemicals that have become mainstays of modem therapy. A few examples will be cited here. 

Lanolin has been used by man as a skin emollient for thousands of years.1 Lanolin (from the Latin lana for wool and oleum for oil) is another name for wool wax, which is secreted by the sebaceous glands of the sheep (Ovis aries) to soften the fleece and protect it against the elements. Lanolin was used by the ancient Greeks (circa 700 b.c.), and a method of recovering lanolin from wool washings was described by the Greek physician Dioscorides (60 a.d.) in his De materia medica.2... 

Pedanius Dioscorides, 40-90 ce Greek pharmacologist and physician in the time of Nero who wrote De Materia Medica, the basis for the modem pharmacopeia that was used until 1600 ce. 

E. E Geoffroy, Tractatus de materia medica (Paris Johannis Desaint Caroli Saillant, 1741) Traite de matiere medicate (Paris J. Desaint C. Saillant, 1743) W. A. Smeaton, Geoffroy, Etienne-Fran ois, Dictionary of Scientific Biography. 

Geoffroy, Etienne-Fran ois. Tractatus de materia medica, sive de medicamento-rum simplicium historia, virtute, delectu et usu, 3 vols. (Paris Joannis Desaint... 

Boerhaave, H. (1719). Eibellus de materia medica et remediorum formulis, quae serviunt aphorismis de cognoscendis et curandis morbis. Leiden. 

Safflower seed, pollen, florets, and oil have been used for medicinal purposes almost since cultivation began. In the first century a.d., Pliny wrote that safflower oil, called oleum cnicium, was used as a milder substitute for castor oil, and Ped-anius Dioscorides, in De Materia Medica (the leading Western pharmacological text for 16 centuries), described the use of safflower to color and flavor various potions and unguents and to act as mild laxatives and flavoring agents (157). 

Plants have always played a central role in traditional systems of medicine for the prevention and treatment of disease worldwide [10, 11]. Although an in-depth history of plant medicines, for both human and veterinary purposes is beyond the scope of this review, it is important to understand that for thousands of years the traditional medicine in all countries exclusively employed naturally occurring plant medicines. For example, Hippocrates (5th century B.C.) mentions approximately 300 to 400 medicinal plants in his medical writings Dioscorides (1st century A.D.) wrote De Materia Medica, a medicinal plant treatise that outlined the medical use of numerous plant species and many hundreds of plant remedies are described in the Papyrus of Ebers, discovered in Egypt, which was written about 1550 BC [5, 11]. Furthermore, traditional Chinese medicine uses multiple plant prescriptions and has served the health needs of the Chinese population for over 5000 years [12, 13]. The Bible also described over 30 plant species, including frankincense and myrrh, which are reported to have antiseptic and healing properties [5]. 

Dioscorides, P. 512. De materia medica The Greek herbal of Dioscorides. Translated by Goodyer, J. (1959 edition). New York Hafner Pub. Co. 

C20H28O3, Mr 316.44, mp. 65-68°C, [oId +49° (CHCI3). Extracts of the Indian butterbur (Petasites hy-bridus) have been used for centuries as a cure for inflammations and spasms. Therapeutic applications were described in the first century by Dioskurides, the physician of Claudius and Nero, in his De materia medica . The spasmolytically active components of the plants have been identifi as the eremophilane derivative P. and its 7,11-double bond isomer isopeta-sin. Both compounds inhibit the biosynthesis of leu-kotrienes. 

Phny the Elder, Pedanius Dioskurides De materia medica, 77 AD) and a little later, the most important gynaecologist of ancient times, Soranus of Ephesus On Midwifery and the Diseases of Women, 100 AD), already wrote about contraception and abortion. Reference thereof can also be found in the thriving Arabic medicine of the 10th century, as, for example, in works by Muhammad ibn Zakariya Razi (Rhazes, Quintessence of Experience), Ah ibn al-Abbas al-Majusi (Haly Abbas, Royal Book) and Abu Ah al-Husain ibn Abdullah ibn Sina (Avicenna, Canon of Medicine). 

One of the most important herbal books in history is the ve-volume book De Materia Medica, written by the Greek physician and botanist Pedanius Dioscorides (ca. 40-90), who practiced in ancient Rome. In the course of his numerous travels all over the Roman and Greek world seeking for medicinal plants, he described more than 500 medicinal plants and respective remedies. His treatise, which may be considered a precursor of modern pharmacopoeias, was later translated into a variety of languages. Dioscorides, as well as his contemporary Plirty the Elder (23-79), a Roman natural historian, mention besides other facts turpentine oil and give some limited information on the methods in its preparation. 

Crowell, R, Elson, C.E., Bailey, H., Elegbede, A., Haag, J., and Gould, M. (1994) Human metabolism of the experimental cancer therapeutic agent -limonene. Cancer Chemother. Pharmacol. 35 31-37. Dioscorides (50 AD) Inquiry into Plants and Growth of Plants—Theophrastus. De Materia Medica. 

Dioscorides, in his De Materia Medica, discussed the components of perfumes and their medici nal properties, providing detailed perfume formulae. Alexandrian chemists were divided into three schools, one of which was the school of Maria the Jewess, which produced pieces of apparatus for distillation and sublimation, such as the bain-marie, useful for extracting the aromatic oils from plant material. Perfumes became more commonly known in medieval Europe as knights returning from the Crusades brought back musk, oral waters, and a variety of spices. 

A Treatise of the Fossil, Vegetable and Animal Substances that care made use of in Physick. .. Translated from a Manuscript Copy of the Author s Lectures, read at Paris, by G. Douglas, M.D., 8 , London, 1736 Tractatus de materia medica, 3 vols. 8 , Paris, 1741 (BN) tr. A. Ber-gier, Trcdti de la matiere mediccde, 7 vols. 12 , Paris, 1743 (BN), 1756 J. and W. TTiomson and D. Craigie, Life of Cullen, 1859, ii, 560, say the work shows a lade of critical discrimination. 

Dioscoides (50 ad) Inquiry into Plants and Growth of Plants— Theophrastus, De Materia Medica. 

Pharmacophore 9676 compounds from the DIOS database of natural products found in ancient herbal medicines described in De materia medica and 10,216 compounds from the Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) database Partial 4 3 [98]... 

Dioscorides Osbaldeston,T.A. Wbcxl, R.RA. de Materia Medica, Ibidis Press, Johannesburg, South Africa (2000)... 

P. Dioscorides, De Materia Medica. IB ID IS Press, Johannesburg, Republic of South Africa, 2000. 

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