European Materia Medica in Historical Texts: Longevity of a Tradition and Implications for Future Use

摘要

Recent research in the area of new drug discovery has shown the continued promise of looking to natural products for bioactive compounds. Researchers have thus turned to traditional medicine, which is still used widely throughout the world and increasingly in industrialized countries as well, to provide clues as to which products to investigate. The oral traditions on which much of this medical knowledge rests, however, are unstable, prompting researchers to turn to textual sources for potential drugs. This study uses Mediterranean/European medical texts from the 5^th century BC to the 19^th century A.D. to compile a list of the most commonly used “simples” – or single action drug substances – used in therapeutics in traditional European medicine. It finds that traditional European materia medica was based on a Dioscordean tradition that lasted through the 19^th century with remarkably little variation, but is significantly different from the present-day herbal pharmacopoeia as represented by the National Institutes of Health. The most prominent simples of that tradition can thus provide clues to further bioactive compounds that have not as of yet been fully exploited for their potential, but were clearly of great use in the past.