history and pharmacology in europe Flashcards
Where does European medicine have its roots?
in the Nile Valley of Egypt (north africa)
how many years back is there evidence of medicinal use of plants in the Nile Valley?
5000 years back
The earliest extant record of medicinal plant use is?
an ancient egyptian manuscript known as the Ebers Papyrus, which was recovered by Edwin Smith at Thebes
Ebers Papyrus
- written approx 3500 years ago, however the contents are much older since reference is made to medicinal knowledge from the VI Dynasty about 4500 years ago
- the scroll is 20.3m (110 pages)
- lists over 700 remedies and recipes for treating various diseases and symptoms
- a number of plants mentioned are still used today.
ex. castor oil as an effective laxative
How many years ago did the ancient greeks began to borrow from and develop the medical knowledge contained within ancient egyptian manuscripts?
2500 years ago
Hippocrates
- 460-377BCE
- father of medicine
- to this day western med doctors take the hippocratic oath
- mentioned over 400 healing plants in his extensive writings (many of these plants had already been described in the earlier egyptian works)
Theophrastus
- a student of Aristotle
- father of botany
- completed his enquiry into plants in 300BCE
- this was the first written work to note similarities among plant species and these similarities were used to develop an early classification of plant families (groups of related species)
- The medical writings of Theophrastus expanded on the earlier works of Aristotle
Dioscorides
(40-90 CE)
-greek physician and pharmacologist
wrote De Materia Medica in 77CE
De Materia Medica
from ancient egyptian and early greek sources
600 medicinal plants
Roman Galen
131-200 CE
expanded on the earlier Greek works, particularly those of Discorides
produced and encyclopedic work of greek and roman medical teachings that paid much greater attention to pharmacology including careful notes on plant drugs and their use, many of the ancient greek and roman works are still used today
Western roman empire
476CE
medicinal plant gardens and studying and copying medical manuscripts
when were medical schools established in Europe
476-1496
the most innovative medicinal school
salerno (italy)
what other medicinal schools are there
montpellier (france) Oxford university (England) University of Paris (France) University of Bologna (Italy) these universities were primarily repositories of past knowledge rather than centers of new discovery; ancient greek and roman knowledge simply passed down through generations
Constantine the African
1010-1087
important contributor to accumulation of ancient knowledge
-Muslim from tunisia who studied islamic medicine in Baghdad and Africa
-translated a number of important islamic medical texts into latin for the school of salerno
-these translations had a major influence on European medicine: they reintroduced ancient greek and roman knowledge base by introducing new and innovative ideas from islamic medicine
