History of Medicinal Uses

the noblest of metals, was probably the first pure element recognized by the early inhabitants of the earth. It has a medicinal history that can be traced through the written history of every culture and far into pre-history by means of archeological records. Medicinal properties were early assigned to gold on the basis of its mystical importance and its association with the sun. Modem medicine dismisses such uses for lack of plausible mechanisms. Yet, one can still 

EtsPAuSATg (2,3,4,6-tetro-O-acetyl-B-l-D-glucopyronosoto-S) (trlethylphosphlne) gold(l) (ouranofin) 

Gold Complexes with Anti-arthritic, Anti-tumour and Anti-HIV Activity 

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Zeese, Kevin B. Research Findings on Medicinal Properties ofMarijuana. Medical MJ Science.org. Available online. URL http //www.medmjscience. org/Pages/history/zeese.bhtml. Downloaded January 8, 2004. An attorney and advocate involved in federal marijuana rescheduling cases summarizes the history of medicinal use of marijuana and describes major research studies that have tended to confirm the medical value of marijuana for certain conditions such as anorexia, nausea, and glaucoma. 

The resins, especially of Styrax, have had a long history of medicinal use. 

The importance of this history is that it meant there was a precedent for the use of lithium as a medicine. It also meant that lithium was readily available for experimentation in the pharmacies of psychiatric hospitals. Therefore when John Cade, an Australian psychiatrist, suggested that lithium might be a useful treatment in people with mania in the 1940s, it did not seem curious. Cade also experimented with use of the elements strontium and cerium in the treatment of psychiatric disorders, but they never caught on in the same way because there was no prior history of medicinal use. 

Sweet clover has a long history of medicinal use, often as an antiflammatory or analgesic preparation in the form of ointments and poultices. Melilotus officinalis (yellow sweet clover, or ribbed melilot) was reputed to have been a favorite herbal treatment used by King Henry VIII of England and the plant is still referred to as King s Clover in some publications (175). 

Ginger (Zingiber officinale) has been widely used as a dietary spice as well as in traditional oriental medicine. Ginger has a long history of medicinal use in China and India for conditions such as nausea, coldness, and rheumatism. Ginger is claimed to warm the body and treat cold extremities. Ginger is one of the hot spices which contain a number of pimgent constituents. 

Perhaps the most well-known ether is diethyl ether, which has a long history of medicinal use as an anesthetic and industrial use as a solvent. Other useful ethers include anisole, a pleasant-smelling aromatic ether used in perfumery, and tetrahydrofuran (THE), a cyclic ether often used as a solvent. Thiols and sulfides are found in various biomolecules, although not as commonly as their oxygen-containing relatives. 

BioPrint is particularly useful in placing the new drug candidates in the context of drugs and related compounds that together make up the history of medicinal chemistry. New candidates are run on the same assays as the BioPrint compounds and the resulting profile is analyzed. Profiles can be analyzed in two different ways each individual hit can be analyzed and assessed for potential ADR liabilities or the entire profile can be used to identify compounds with similar profiles. Potential ADR liabilities are assessed based on those of the similar compounds identified. These two different approaches will be discussed in the following sections. 

This publication was supported in part by NIH Grant LM 03300 from the National Library of Medicine. I wish to thank the following for permission to use archival materials Special Collections, Robert W. Woodruff Library, Emory University Alan Mason Chesney Archives, Johns Hopkins University and Division of Archives, State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Part of the research for this paper was carried out while the author was a Visiting Associate Professor at The Johns Hopkins Institute of the History of Medicine. A preliminary, abbreviated version of the paper was delivered at the American Chemical Society meeting in Washington, D.C., on September 12, 1979, at a session of papers in honor of Aaron J. Ihde sponsored by the Division of History of Chemistry. 

There is a long history of the use of Aconitum, Delphinium and Consolida species as the source of poisons and medicinals [1]. These three genera in Ranunculaceae family yield diterpenoid and norditerpenoid alkaloids. The name Delphinium derived from dolphine-delphine due to the shape of their flower buds [2]. Aconitum has an evil reputation from the antiquity [3]. The plant was used as poison in old Greece, also in north-west Pacific the natives used it to poison the whales and also as arrow poison. In England in the ancient times the plant was used against wolves, boars, tigers as well as against rodents, and it was also a homicide material [4]. 

In many developing countries of the world, there is still a major reliance on crude drug preparation of plants used in traditional medicines for their primary health care. Pharmacognosists employed in the different institutions are aware of the changing trends of herbal medications and a number of useful texts on the analysis, uses, and potential toxicities of herbal remedies have appeared recently, which serves as useful guides in pharmacy practice. The history of medicine includes many ludicrous therapies. Nevertheless, ancient wisdom has been the basis of modem medicine and will remain as one important source of future medicine and therapeutics. The future of natural products drug discovery will be more holistic, personahzed and involve the wise use of ancient and modem therapeutic skills in a complementary manner so that maximum benefits can be accmed to the patients and the community. 

The rapid accrual of biomedical information has led to considerable interest both in the notion of evidence-based medicine and also in the history of the use of quantitative evidence in medicine. Trohler has shown that the origins of a quantitative approach to medicine can be traced back to the eighteenth century in Britain and was a movement begun by physicians who believed that there was a need to move to an empirical approach to medicine and away from the systemic-pathophysiological approach of antiquity. 

The word pepper comes from the Indian Sanskrit word pippali, which became the Greek peperi and Latin piper. Piper nigrum is native to southwest India and Sri Lanka, where it has a long history of traditional use. Pepper was traded as a spice and used as a medicinal substance for at least 4,000 years. It was first cultivated in the present Indian state of Kerala, which is located at the southern tip of India along its southwest coast. Pepper was freely traded between... 

The development of aspirin was a significant landmark in the history of medicine because it stimulated the development of a family of medicines, collectively known as the nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). NSAIDs such as ibuprofen, naproxen, and sulindac are valuable drugs used for the alleviation of pain, inflammation, and fever, and they are commonly prescribed for the treatment of rheumatoid disorders such as arthritis. The world market for NSAIDs now exceeds 6 billion (Vainio and Morgan, 1997). 

Although many examples of clinical investigation can be found throughout the history of medicine, the RCT emerged in the mid-20th century as the most powerful and scientifically sound way to establish the efficacy and safety of medicines. In 1948, Austin Bradford Hill used the statistical method of randomization with concealment of the allocation code to reduce biases related to selection and analysis of patients... 

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