Dioscorides

G. R. Chaudhry, ed.. Biological Degradation and Bioremediation of Toxic Chemicals, Dioscorides Press, Pordand, Oreg., 1994. 

Sulfur has long been known for its properties as a pesticide and a curative agent. Homer spoke of the pest-averting sulfur as far back as 800—1000 BC, Hippocrates (400 Bc) considered sulfur sa an antidote against plague, and Dioscorides (100 ad) used sulfur ointment in dermatology (244). In 1803, the use of a lime—sulfur protective treatment for fmit trees was reported, and in 1850 sulfur dust was used to protect foHage (245). In 1891 sulfur dust was used on soil to control onion smut (246). 

In the first century, Dioscorides stated that the roots of the anchusa plant were usehil in the treatment of wounds (60) this idea has been verified... 

Hippocrates mentioned elder as a purgative around 400 B.C. Pliny (circa 2379 A.D.) recorded the use of elder by the Romans. Pedanius Dioscorides, a first-century army surgeon who traveled throughout the Roman Empire, also wrote about the medical value of elder. Elder was widely used in the early Italian medical schools. 

As great administrators, the Romans instituted hospitals, although these were used mainly to cater to the needs of the military. Through this work, organized medical care was made available. The Romans also extended the pharmacy practice of the Greeks. Dioscorides and Galen were two noted physicians in Roman days. Dioscorides s Materia Medica contains descriptions of treatments based on 80% plant, 10% animal, and 10% mineral products. 

The use of valerian extends back at least 1000 years, and it gained a reputation in sixteenth-century Europe as a treatment for epilepsy (Tyler 1994 Temkin 1971). Its reported uses are broad (digestive aid, muscle relaxant, antipyretic, etc.) but it is commonly known to treat insomnia and anxiety (Gruenwald et al. 1998 Kowalchick and Hylton 1987). Valerian has a distinct, unpleasant odor. Perhaps appropriately, it is believed to be an herb in the writings of Galen and Dioscorides, called phu (Leyel 1994). 

Henbane is a biennial herb growing wild in Europe, western Asia, and northern Africa, and cultivated in several other countries (Robbers et al. 1996). The ancient Egyptians mention its use in the Ebers Papyrus, written circa 1500 B.C.E. (Shultes and Hofman 1992). It was also mentioned in writings by the ancient Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides for its medicinal uses. It has been suggested that the Oracle of Delphi inhaled smoke from henbane seeds to induce a prophetic trance. The plant is poisonous to livestock animals, as indicated by its common name henbane, and by its botanical name hyoscyamus, meaning "hog bean."... 

Schultes RE, Raffauf RF. (1990) The Healing Forest. Dioscorides Press, Portland, OR. 

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). 

The ancient Egyptians have described several useful preparations such as opium and castor oil. They also used rotten bread for treating infections which resembles our use of antibiotics produced by moulds and fungi. The Roman physician, Dioscorides, studied the medical uses of hundreds of plants and wrote the first systematic materia mediea during the first century. He also described the medicinal properties of wines. 

In the second century bc, Dioscorides noted, Lead makes the mind give way . Despite this warning, the seemingly endless uses of lead has repeatedly brought it into daily use and widespread distribution. In modern times, lead was heavily used in paint and as a gasoline additive. The subtle brain damage that even low levels of lead exposure caused in children was recognized and acted upon only in the last 30 years. 

RiedUnger, T.J. (1990). The Sacred Mushroom Seeker. Portland Dioscorides Press. Rudgley, R. (1993). The Alchemy of Culture. London British Museum Press. 

Schultes, R. E., and R. F. Raffauf. The Healing Forest medicinal and toxic plants of the northwest Amazonia. Dioscorides Press, Portland, OR. 1995 432-436. 

Although the ancient conception of an element was quite different from the modem one, a few of the substances now recognized as chemical elements have been known and used since the dawn of history. Although no one knows who discovered these ancient building-stones of the universe, the writings of Pliny the Elder and Dioscorides and the Hebrew and Hindu Scriptures abound in interesting allusions to the metals, gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, tin, and mercury, and the non-metals, sulfur and carbon. 

Dioscorides also described minium, distinguished it from cinnabar, and mentioned its use for the painting and decorating of walls (208). 

In the first century of the present era, the Latins referred to tin as plumbum album to distinguish it from lead, which they called plumbum nigrum (16). Pliny and Dioscorides mentioned the use of tin coatings to prevent corrosion of copper vessels (17). 

Gunther, R. T., The Greek Herbal of Dioscorides, Oxford University Press,... 

The so-called arsenic of the Greeks and Romans consisted of the poisonous sulfides, orpiment and sandarac, mined with heavy loss of life by slave labor (2). Both Pliny the Elder and Dioscorides were familiar with orpiment and realgar (sandarac) (70). The latter mentioned that Arsenicum and Sandaracha occur in the same mines, that sandarac has a brimstone-like odor, and that these two ores are roasted in the same manner (71). 

Metallic Zinc. Ancient metallurgists probably lost the volatile zinc metal as vapor because their apparatus was not designed for condensing it. E. O. von Lippmann, a great authority on the history of science, searched the writings of Aristotle, Plmy, and Dioscorides in vain for any mention of it, but an idol containing 87 5 per cent of that metal was found in a prehistoric Dacian ruin at Dordosch, Transylvania (2). 

The prescriptions in the Ebers papyrus (sixteenth century B.C.) mention both common salt and soda (natron) (31). Both the Old and New Testaments abound in literal and figurative allusions to salt Ye are the salt of the earth , Have salt in yourselves and have peace one with another (32). Strabo described the mining of rock salt and its preparation from salt springs in 18 A.D. (1). Dioscorides of Anazarba said in 64 A.D. that the best salt came from Cyprus, Sicily, Africa, and Phrygia (I). 

Dioscorides Pedanios said that calx viva (quicklime) was made by heating shells of "sea fishes called Buccinoe (whelks), pebble stones, or marble (75). 

Wool fat or suint.—The potash found in plants is obtained from the soil and the potash in the soil is one product of the decomposition of rocks which form the earth s crust. The potash which herbivorous animals—e.g. sheep—draw from the land is largely exuded as an oily sweat from the skin, and called, after the French, suint. In the first century of our era, Dioscorides called the mixture of wool fat and water oTowos, eesypus, a name which it retained up to the middle of the seventeenth century. CEsypus is mentioned several times by Ovid. In spite of its disagreeable smell it appears to have been used by the Boman ladies as one of their choice cosmetics. It is mentioned in N. Culpeper s Pharmacopoeia Londi-nensis (London, 1653), but it soon afterwards disappeared from the pharmacopoeia... 

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