The First Drug Appeared During 140-130 BC
17/12/2016 02:26
The First Drug Appeared During 140-130 BC.
Archeologists investigating an fossilized shipwreck off the coastline of Tuscany report they have stumbled upon a rare find: a tightly closed tin container with well-preserved medicament dating back to about 140-130 BC. A multi-disciplinary party analyzed fragments of the green-gray tablets to decipher their chemical, mineralogical and botanical composition hair i. The results make a peek into the complexity and sophistication of ancient therapeutics.
So "The research highlights the continuity from then until now in the use of some substances for the remedying of human diseases," said archeologist and lead researcher Gianna Giachi, a chemist at the Archeological Heritage of Tuscany, in Florence, Italy. "The into or also shows the anxiety that was taken in choosing complex mixtures of products - olive oil, pine resin, starch - in harmony to get the desired therapeutic effect and to help in the preparation and relevancy of medicine".
The medicines and other materials were found together in a tight space and are thought to have been originally packed in a coffer that seems to have belonged to a physician, said Alain Touwaide, scientific director of the Institute for the Preservation of Medical Traditions, in Washington, DC Touwaide is a fellow of the multi-disciplinary team that analyzed the materials. The tablets contained an iron oxide, as well as starch, beeswax, pine resin and a alloy of plant-and-animal-derived lipids, or fats.
Touwaide said botanists on the inspection team discovered that the tablets also contained carrot, radish, parsley, celery, outrageous onion and cabbage - simple plants that would be found in a garden. Giachi said that the arrangement and shape of the tablets suggest they may have been used to treat the eyes, c as an eyewash. But Touwaide, who compared findings from the analysis to what has been understood from ancient texts about medicine, said the metallic component found in the tablets was undeniably used not just for eyewashes but also to treat wounds.
The exploration is evidence of the effectiveness of some natural medicines that have been used for literally thousands of years. "This report potentially represents essentially several centuries of clinical trials. If natural medicine is reach-me-down for centuries and centuries, it's not because it doesn't work".
A report on the analysis of the tablets was published in this week's culmination of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The shipwrecked boat - the Relitto del Pozzino - was found in the Gulf of Baratti in 1974 and commencement explored eight years later. The assay of the tablets was begun about two years ago. The vessel, about 50 to 60 feet long, was found in an section considered a key east-west trade route.
In summation to the pills, archeologists found other remnants of early medicine: a copper bleeding cup, a tin pitcher, 136 boxwood vials, and tin containers. The tablets were well preserved for the survive 2000 years because the cylindrical tin container in which they were stored, called a pyxis, was hermetically sealed by the true to life disgrace of the metal adding that very few other ancient medicines have been discovered elsewhere. "In London, a gravelly cream was discovered in a small tin canister.
It was dated to the second century AD and was perhaps used as moistening or medicinal cream". Giachi noted that another botanical medicine was found at the bottom of a dolium - a prominently Roman earthenware container - from the first century AD, recovered near Pompeii. Also, in Lyon, France, cylindrical rods recovered from a later century AD entombment site were considered to be eyewashes. To analyze the material found in the shipwreck, a fragment from the true tablets was studied with light microscopy and a scanning electron microscope. DNA sequencing was old to analyze the organic elements.
Other experts in the field lauded the discovery as a rare find that offered valuable clues to the verifiable types of materials used in ancient medicine. "What we positive about ancient medicine is largely contained in manuscripts, often corrupt - copied and recopied and fragmentary," said Michael Sappol, an historian in the retailing of medicine division of the US National Library of Medicine. "When the manuscripts direct to plants, it's not always evident what they're referring to. There's a lot we don't know".
Dr Mark Fromer, an ophthalmologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, said it makes suspect that the panacea that was discovered on the ship was an eye lotion to treat dry eye, a common condition even today. "It's easy to make: it's saline, which has a pH acid offset close to tears how to buy zyban (generic). It's fascinating to realize that the problems that faced men and women thousands of years ago haven't changed".
Archeologists investigating an fossilized shipwreck off the coastline of Tuscany report they have stumbled upon a rare find: a tightly closed tin container with well-preserved medicament dating back to about 140-130 BC. A multi-disciplinary party analyzed fragments of the green-gray tablets to decipher their chemical, mineralogical and botanical composition hair i. The results make a peek into the complexity and sophistication of ancient therapeutics.
So "The research highlights the continuity from then until now in the use of some substances for the remedying of human diseases," said archeologist and lead researcher Gianna Giachi, a chemist at the Archeological Heritage of Tuscany, in Florence, Italy. "The into or also shows the anxiety that was taken in choosing complex mixtures of products - olive oil, pine resin, starch - in harmony to get the desired therapeutic effect and to help in the preparation and relevancy of medicine".
The medicines and other materials were found together in a tight space and are thought to have been originally packed in a coffer that seems to have belonged to a physician, said Alain Touwaide, scientific director of the Institute for the Preservation of Medical Traditions, in Washington, DC Touwaide is a fellow of the multi-disciplinary team that analyzed the materials. The tablets contained an iron oxide, as well as starch, beeswax, pine resin and a alloy of plant-and-animal-derived lipids, or fats.
Touwaide said botanists on the inspection team discovered that the tablets also contained carrot, radish, parsley, celery, outrageous onion and cabbage - simple plants that would be found in a garden. Giachi said that the arrangement and shape of the tablets suggest they may have been used to treat the eyes, c as an eyewash. But Touwaide, who compared findings from the analysis to what has been understood from ancient texts about medicine, said the metallic component found in the tablets was undeniably used not just for eyewashes but also to treat wounds.
The exploration is evidence of the effectiveness of some natural medicines that have been used for literally thousands of years. "This report potentially represents essentially several centuries of clinical trials. If natural medicine is reach-me-down for centuries and centuries, it's not because it doesn't work".
A report on the analysis of the tablets was published in this week's culmination of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The shipwrecked boat - the Relitto del Pozzino - was found in the Gulf of Baratti in 1974 and commencement explored eight years later. The assay of the tablets was begun about two years ago. The vessel, about 50 to 60 feet long, was found in an section considered a key east-west trade route.
In summation to the pills, archeologists found other remnants of early medicine: a copper bleeding cup, a tin pitcher, 136 boxwood vials, and tin containers. The tablets were well preserved for the survive 2000 years because the cylindrical tin container in which they were stored, called a pyxis, was hermetically sealed by the true to life disgrace of the metal adding that very few other ancient medicines have been discovered elsewhere. "In London, a gravelly cream was discovered in a small tin canister.
It was dated to the second century AD and was perhaps used as moistening or medicinal cream". Giachi noted that another botanical medicine was found at the bottom of a dolium - a prominently Roman earthenware container - from the first century AD, recovered near Pompeii. Also, in Lyon, France, cylindrical rods recovered from a later century AD entombment site were considered to be eyewashes. To analyze the material found in the shipwreck, a fragment from the true tablets was studied with light microscopy and a scanning electron microscope. DNA sequencing was old to analyze the organic elements.
Other experts in the field lauded the discovery as a rare find that offered valuable clues to the verifiable types of materials used in ancient medicine. "What we positive about ancient medicine is largely contained in manuscripts, often corrupt - copied and recopied and fragmentary," said Michael Sappol, an historian in the retailing of medicine division of the US National Library of Medicine. "When the manuscripts direct to plants, it's not always evident what they're referring to. There's a lot we don't know".
Dr Mark Fromer, an ophthalmologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, said it makes suspect that the panacea that was discovered on the ship was an eye lotion to treat dry eye, a common condition even today. "It's easy to make: it's saline, which has a pH acid offset close to tears how to buy zyban (generic). It's fascinating to realize that the problems that faced men and women thousands of years ago haven't changed".