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Sumerians

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). [Pg.381]

Corrosion protection using bitumen coatings reaches back into antiquity. The most ancient occurrence of bitumen deposits was in Mesopotamia. Many writers of antiquity, such as Dido, Strabo, and Vitruvius, mention that asphalt was obtained for many years near Babylon. About 5000 yeare ago, the streets of Ur, capital of the Sumerians (north of present-day Kuwait), were lit at night with mineral oil. Natural gas was reported to be used for lighting in the Middle East and China. [Pg.2]

Microorganisms have been identified and exploited for more than a century. The Babylonians and Sumerians used yeast to prepare alcohol. There is a great history beyond fermentation processes, which explains the applications of microbial processes that resulted in the production of food and beverages. In the mid-nineteenth century, Louis Pasteur understood the role of microorganisms in fermented food, wine, alcohols, beverages, cheese, milk, yoghurt and other dairy products, fuels, and fine chemical industries. He identified many microbial processes and discovered the first principal role of fermentation, which was that microbes required substrate to produce primary and secondary metabolites, and end products. [Pg.1]

The term fermentation was obtained from the Latin verb fervere which describes the action of yeast or malt on sugar or fruit extracts and grain. The boiling is due to the production of carbon dioxide bubbles from the aqueous phase under the anaerobic catabolism of carbohydrates in the fermentation media. The art of fermentation is defined as the chemical transformation of organic compounds with the aid of enzymes. The ability of yeast to make alcohol was known to the Babylonians and Sumerians before 6000 bc. The Egyptians discovered the generation of carbon dioxide by brewer s yeast in the preparation... [Pg.2]

Soaps are derived from natural sources such as animal fats. Soap made by boiling animal fat in an alkaline solution obtained from ashes has been known since the time of the ancient Sumerians, 2500 BC. Such soaps... [Pg.873]

Mention is made of the Code of Hammurabi only to place in human history that period when reference to eye medicines or poultices was beginning to appear. The Sumerians, in southern Mesopotamia, are considered to be the first to record their history, beginning about 3100 B.C. The Egyptians used copper compounds, such as malachite and chrysocalla, as green... [Pg.420]

This book explores the mystery and the magic of the number 7. From medieval alchemy to ancient Sumerian mathematics, to astrology, to modem playing cards, numerology and the myths of native Americans"... [Pg.517]

A similar connection between the world around us and cosmology can be found in the land between the Tigris and Euphrates. The Earth was regarded as a flat disc, surrounded by a vast hollow space which was in turn surrounded by the Armament of heaven. In the Sumerian creation myth, heaven and Earth formed... [Pg.4]

The Assyrians who ruled over large parts of the Middle East for nearly a millennium, about 3 000 years ago, have left us a pharmaceutical legacy on hundreds of clay tablets. Cannabis was one of the major drugs of their pharmacopoeia. They named this plant according to its use. Campbell Thompson identified the Sumerian term as cannabis on the basis of their similarities to the Aramaic and Syriac azal, meaning to spin. Campbell Thompson then identified the Sumerian Aru gdn-zi-gun-nu ( plant which takes away the mind ) as hashish. A letter written around 680 B.C. by an unknown woman to the mother of the Assyrian king, Esarhaddon, mentions a substance called qu-nu-bu, which also may have been cannabis. ... [Pg.50]

The first civilized people in this area were the Sumerians, who settled in the southern region of Mesopotamia about 6,000 to 7,000 years ago. The Sumerians had an advanced culture with distinctive arts and urban centers. Around 3500 b.c.e. they became the first people to develop writing and therefore the first to leave historic records. Another of their achievements was the construction of artificial mountains in the form of step pyramids called ziggurats, which they used to observe the sky and worship their gods who lived there. [Pg.38]

Circa 3500 The Sumerians become the first people to develop writing and, therefore, written history, and build the first ziggurats. [Pg.121]

Another early use of iron oxides was as a cosmetic. The cosmetic boxes (cockleshells) found in the Royal Cemetery in the ancient Sumerian city of Ur contained a range of different colours. XRD analysis by the Research Department of the British Museum showed that the principal components of the red and yellow colours were hematite and goethite, respectively (Bimson, 1980). One box also contained a purple powder consisting of a mixture of quartz grains and large crystals of hematite. [Pg.510]

Morphine was known to the Sumerians and Egyptians as a very valuable pain killer in medicine it is also a powerful narcotic that is habit forming. A great deal of effort has been spent in finding a derivative of morphine that has its good properties, and less of its bad properties. Then, in 1944, demerol and methadone were discovered, which are even more powerful than morphine, but bear no structural relation to morphine. The leading theory now is that both morphine and methadone have the same T-shape, and may fit the receptor. [Pg.103]

Human use of acids and bases dates back thousands of years. Probably the first acid to be produced in large quantities was acetic acid, HC HjO. Vinegar is a diluted aqueous solution of acetic acid. This acid is an organic acid that forms when naturally occurring bacteria called acetobacter aceti convert alcohol to acetic acid. Ancient Sumerians used wine to produce vinegar for... [Pg.155]

The use of chemical pesticides can be traced back several thousand years. The Sumerians, occupying present-day Iraq, burned sulfur compounds to produce fumigants. The Greeks also employed this practice as early as 1000 b.c. Evidence exists that the Chinese extracted pesticides from... [Pg.281]

There are several Emopean Neolithic sites where seeds of the opium poppy have been found, with one site in Spain having been dated to 4200 BC. There is evidence that by 3400 BC the Sumerians in Mesopotamia (Iraq) were cultivating the plant, which they called Hul Gil (joy plant). The Assyrians, Babylonians and Egyptians continued to exploit the plant and a trade was developed in opium to ports in the Mediterranean. Opium was used in religious ritual, medicine and what currently would be called recreational use. [Pg.46]

Catalysis is not a new phenomenon, but its intentional utilization by humans has begun only in this century. One of the first catalytic processes was probably the fermentation of fruits to obtain alcoholic beverages. Enzymes found in yeast were used as catalysts for the conversion of sugar into alcohol. In fact, ancient Sumerians described beer preparation on... [Pg.39]

Morphine is the principal alkaloid obtained from opium. Opium is the resinous latex that exudes from the seed pod of the opium poppy, Papver somneferum, when it is lacerated. Alkaloids account for approximately 25% of opium, and of this 25% about 60% is morphine. Remains of poppy seeds and pods have been found in Neolithic caves, indicating that the use of opium predates written history. The opium poppy is native to the eastern Mediterranean, but today it is chiefly cultivated from the Middle East through southern Asia and into China and Southeast Asia. The first civilization known to use opium was the Sumerians, who inhabited Mesopotamia in present-day western Iraq, around 3500 B.c.E. Sumerians traded opium with other civilizations, and this led to the cultivation of opium poppies and the production of opium in many geographic areas including Egypt, India, Persia (Iran), Southeast Asia, and China. [Pg.184]

Early Sumerian tablets refer to a substance that is probably opium. [Pg.79]


See other pages where Sumerians is mentioned: [Pg.359]    [Pg.146]    [Pg.154]    [Pg.229]    [Pg.344]    [Pg.71]    [Pg.104]    [Pg.547]    [Pg.14]    [Pg.228]    [Pg.71]    [Pg.480]    [Pg.39]    [Pg.121]    [Pg.204]    [Pg.319]    [Pg.236]    [Pg.9]    [Pg.9]    [Pg.10]    [Pg.7]    [Pg.28]    [Pg.284]    [Pg.37]    [Pg.228]    [Pg.4]    [Pg.541]   
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See also in sourсe #XX -- [ Pg.58 ]




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