Ye Olde Apothecary
How was Western world "healthcare" practiced before modern corporations took it over?
Medicines that we used to use to treat illness, go back for centuries. It is only recently, around early 1900, that the Rockefellers took over the practice, steering it to synthesized chemicals derived from petrochemicals.
As a pharmaceutical scientist, biologist, biochemist, as well as physician, I am well aware of the origins of many therapeutic substances. I truly love making up my lotions and potions in the laboratory. Now that I live ‘out in the country’ where I can forage and garden, I am teaching myself to go directly to the botanical source whenever possible. I have much to learn, still.
Let’s start with going back in time, and examine how medicines were made.
Circa 1700’s :
The medicinal garden was a critical component, so the Apothecarist needed those skills in addition to being a foraging botanist. Local medicine men and herbalists contributed even more ‘local’ information to the mix.
Roman Times:
But origins of medicinal potions date as far back as the Greek and Roman times. Famous historical physician Galen, wrote of these elixirs and how they were administered.
Mithridate
Was developed in the 300 BC by Mithridates VI, as an antidote against poisoning. It started out with just 36–54 ingredients. By 300 AD, Nero's personal physician Andromachus, had altered the recipe, adding in viper flesh and other compounds. This formulation became known as Theriac of Andromachus.
Theriac
So Theriac began as Mithridatium, created by King Mithridates; he experimented with toxic poisons and snake venoms. He determined the ones to use by testing possible ‘antidotes’ on himself and on his slaves. Mithridatium was made by mixing all those antidotes into one compound containing over 40 ingredients that included viper flesh, opium, ginger, saffron, myrrh, castor, cinnamon, wine, honey and a a group of sixty or more unnamed medical “simples” (single, mostly plant-derived compounds).
In Rome, Galen renamed the compound Theriac and dispensed it to Emperor Marcus Aurelius. From there, the recipe for theriac spread. Western travelers and merchants took it to Muslim lands, China in the 7th century. The Romans spread it throughout their empire - Theriac even appears in a 10th century Saxon book of leechcraft.
In Europe, Theriac was one of the most important drugs used by people at risk of infectious diseases and epidemics
The vast majority of the Theriac compounds may be described as aromatic. Medics from that period thought spicy and pungent plants were able to dry and heat the body, dispelling wet and cold humors. Therefore it was seen as dangerous to use in the presence of fevers. Hot and spicy substances supposedly had the ability to burn up venoms and toxins inside, giving anti-epidemic and anti-poisonous activity.
When modern scientists examined the components at the dosages used, Theriac was found to be neither toxic nor narcotic to patients. There was some scientific basis for therapeutic claims, as well.
Today’s drug discoveries:
The ancients used viper venom in their concoctions, taking them daily in small doses. The rationale was, that the snake was not affected by its own venoms, so constant exposure must bring about tolerance. Apparently, it provided protection from poisons and relieved the symptoms of many ailments.
Carnis viperinae was widely used by physicians and apothecaries. Crateuas, [personal physician of Mithridates VI] used viper flesh to treat leprosy. Hippocrates prescribed it for lichen. Galen recommended it for elephantiasis. It was prescribed for tumors, and even for childbirth.
Snakes' flesh was also used as treatment in the Islamic states, Africa, and India, and has been a part of traditional folk medicine, in Eastern Europe.
I described the components of these ‘poisons’ in a past newsletter and how we extracted and identified potent pharmaceuticals from them. Mast cells are important for protection against the adverse effects of snake bite. Maybe Theriac worked via these cells, somehow?
Mast Cells and Snake Venoms
When just a young resident running a medicine ward, I admitted a teenager with end stage heart failure, his lungs filling up fast. We had max’d out on all the meds available to us at that time, and we had run out of options. His perplexed cardiologist pulled me aside and asked me to give him a newly approved medication, and to watch carefully to how he responds. Well amazingly! after that first dose, he diuresed off ~4 liters of fluid within 24 hours.
Heading off now on this sunny summer day, to cultivate that medicinal garden. The lavender, in particular, is looking lovely …
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REFERENCES
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithridate
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theriac
S Norton. The Pharmacology of Mithridatum: A 2000-Year-Old Remedy. doi: 10.1124/mi.6.2.1MI April 2006 vol. 6 no. 2 60-66 https://triggered.edina.clockss.org/ServeContent?rft_id=info:doi/10.1124/mi.6.2.1
"Theriac: History’s Amazing Wonder Drug" History on the Net
https://www.historyonthenet.com/theriac-historys-amazing-wonder-drug
D Raj, et al. The real Theriac – panacea, poisonous drug or quackery? Journal of Ethnopharmacology. Volume 281, 5 December 2021, 114535. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378874121007649?via%3Dihub
Have you looked at the Homoeopathic materia medica and the snake remedies? The provings providing the list of symptoms the remedies could reverse.