Download The Ancient World

 The primitive world
 Mesopotamia
 Egypt
 India
 China
 Greece
 Rome
The primitive world
 Medicine and pharmacotherapy are one of the oldest
human activities
 The therapeutics system combined empirical, rational,
religious, and magical elements
 The priest, the sorcerer, and the medicine man
Ancient civilizations
 The Nile Valley
 The Tigris-Euphrates Valley about 4000 BC
 The Indus Valley about 3500 BC
 The Yellow River Valley about 1500 BC
Mesopotamia
 Sumerian (4000-2000BC)
 Babylonian (2000-1350BC)
 Chaldean (612-539BC)
Mesopotamia
 A big contribution to the development of pharmacy
and medicine
 Cures involved a spiritual - religious purification and
catharsis
 Dual nature of cleansing – the purification of both
soul and body last out in medical practice for centuries
 Healers were much respected in society and belonged
to the most educated classes
Mesopotamia
 plant drugs, wound washing, plasters and bandaging
 mathematics, geology and metallurgy, astrology and
astronomy
 early systems of weights and measures
 manufacture of soap, leather, vinegar, beer, wine and
glass
 extract natural plant aromas and animal products
Mesopotamia
 Clay tablets – sumerian
language, cuneiform
 More than 250 plants
Myrrh, poppy, thyme, castor
seed, liquorice, storax,
peppermint, cannabis,
mandragora, opium, oils
 Animal products - milk,
honey, waxes
 Animal excreta are also
mentioned - to disgust the
evil spirits
Mesopotamia
 Numerous pharmaceutical forms –
 aqueous and oil extracts
 mixtures
 decoctions
 medicinal wines
 enemas
 poultices
 ointments
King Hammurabi 1795 – 1750BC
 Hammurabi’s Code
 Medical and surgical practice regulated
 Diagnosis and treatment became separated from the
preparation of medicines
 Apothecaries (= the perfumer )
 First druggist’s stalls or shops in about 1900BC
Resume
 Significant contribution to the advancement of
pharmacy
 More than 250 used drugs, many dosage forms
 Regulation of medical practice
 The first apothecary shops
 The first international trade
Egypt
 Egyptian civilisation arose about 4300 BC, and
collapsed 1087 BC
 Egypt then fell under the control of Libyans, Nubians,
Asyrians, and Persians.
 In the conquest of Alexander the Great Egypt became
a centre of the Ptolemaic Empire and then Roman
Empire
Egypt
 inscriptions on tombs,
ceramics and papyri
 a picture language
 spirits, demons and evil
forces
 Thoth the inventor of
science and medicine
 Imhotep deified in
Egypt in Greco – Roman
times.
Egypt
 Egyptian physicians generally specialized in one part
of the body, priestly titles
 Diagnosing and treating disease and making medicine
separated
 The pastophor preparer of medicines
 member of the priestly profession
 highly respected member of society
The Papyrus Ebers
 George Ebers,
a German Egyptologist
about
 4,5m length
 875 prescriptions
 700 drugs vegetable, animal
and mineral sources
 Other medical papyri deal
with gynaecological, surgical
and veterinary matters
Materia medica
 about 700 drugs vegetable, animal and mineral origin
 spices, castor seed, poppy, accacia, senna, opium…
 the animal sources include milk, liver, waxes, excreta…
 the minerals include alum, stibnite (antimony), salt,
copper carbonate
Materia medica
 wines, beers and milk as excipients for their liquid
medicines
 honey, a part of pills, waxes for ointments
 the range of formulations included infusions,
decoctions, teas, gargles, inhalations, snuffs,
fumigations, lozenges, pills, enemas, suppositories,
poultices, lotions and plasters
Resume
 Significant contribution to the advancement of
pharmacy
 700 drugs vegetable, animal and mineral sources
 Sophisticated dosage forms
 Specialization
India
 Beginning about 3250BC
 Mohenjo-Daro, Harappa
2800-2500BC
 Vedic Age 1500BC
The Vedas
- the earliest sacred books
 Rigveda,
 Samaveda
 Yajurveda
 Atharvaveda
 The term Ayurveda was given to the ancient Indian
system of medical sciences
 The Ayurveda is considered to be a branch of the
fourth Veda, the Atharvaveda.
Ayurveda had reached a high stage of development
during the period of Atreya, i.e. 1500 BC
By this time, medical science had already developed
eight specialized branches, namely:
(1) internal medicine
(2) paediatrics
(3) psychotherapy
(4) oto-rhino-laryngology
(5) general surgery
(6) toxicology
(7) geriatric
(8) the science of virility
 Charaka the Physician
 Sushruta the Surgeon
 They are believed to have lived about 300 BC
 Charaka Samhita
 Sushruta Samhita
Charaka Samhita
More than 2000 drugs
 the substances and their properties described
 their action explained
 measures and dosages defined
Materia Medica
 Sandalwood, cinnamon, cardamom, asafoetida, ginger,
pepper, aconite, licorice…
 Drugs and spices were basis of trade with the Romans
and later played an important part of history
Medical Education:
 Medical education became institutionalized
 Universities of Takshashila and Nalanda in the North
India
 Well-organized institutional type of training in all
aspects of medicine both theoretical and practical
 Anatomy, including dissection, and physiology
 Aetiology
 Pathology and pathogenesis
 Therapeutics
 Climatology
 Pharmacology
 Medical and surgical procedures
The Ayurvedic system
Three doshas
 Kapha (phlegm)
 Vaata (wind/spirit/air)
 Pitta
(bile)
existing in a balanced proportion in health
A disturbance in this balance resulted in disease.
State Control of Medical Practice:
 Before undertaking the practice of medicine or
surgery, the medical graduate had to obtain the
permission of the king
 University education was compulsory
 Stated by Sushruta
Resume
 A high stage of development of medicine
 More than 2000 drugs
 Compulsory university education
China
 The Yellow River Valley about 1500 BC
China
 Shen-nung pents‘ ao
 Legendary emperor Shen –nung
 Compilation of medicinal texts
Confucianism and Taoism


Confucius (557- 479 BC)
was a social reformist and a teacher.
Confucianism teachings were practical, they were later
turned into a very elaborate set of rules and practices.
Lao-zi (born in 590 BC), was the founder of Taoism.
Their philosophies are still important in the Chinese
culture, and have helped shape the practice of Chinese
medicine.
Basic principles
 The Yin Yang Theory
 The Five Elements Theory
 The Meridian System
Yin Yang Theory
 According to the
philosophy, yin and yang
are complementary
opposites within a
greater whole.
Everything has both yin
and yang aspects, which
constantly interact,
never existing in
absolute stasis.
Yin Yang Theory
Yang
 Light
Bright
 Temperature
Hot
 Position
Upper
 Action
Movement
 Direction
Outward
 Physiological functions Excitatory

Yin
Dark
Cold
Lower
Rest
Inward
Inhibitory
The Five Elements Theory
The Meridian System
 Chinese food therapy
 Chinese herbal medicine
 Cupping
 Acupuncture
 Moxibuscion
Fire cupping
Moxibuscion
Chinese herbal medicine
 Shen-nung pents‘ ao (Classic of Herbal Medicine)
 365 Chinese medicines
 252 plant origin
 67 from animals,
 46 from minerals.
 Three categories
 The first category - non-toxic (Panax ginseng)
 The second category - could sometimes be toxic and should be used
carefully for certain ailments (Ephedra sinica)
 The third category toxic substances with side effects specifically used
for therapeutic purposes to treat diseases (Croton tiglium)
Pents‘ao Kang-mu
 by Li Shin-chen (1596)
Described more than
 1000 plants
 450 animal substances
 11 100 prescriptions
 52 volumes
Classification
 Chinese physicians used several different methods to
classify traditional Chinese herbs:
 The Four Natures
 The Five Tastes
The Four Natures
 Cold
 Cool
 Warm
 Hot
The Five Tastes





Pungent
Sweet
Sour
Bitter
Salty
 Each taste has a different set of functions and characteristics
 Pungent herbs are used to generate sweat and to direct and vitalize qi and the
blood.
 Sweet-tasting herbs often tonify or harmonize bodily systems.
 Sour taste most often is astringent or consolidates,
 Bitter taste dispels heat, purges the bowels and get rid of dampness by drying
them out.
 Salty tastes soften hard masses as well as purge and open the bowels.
 In traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), herbal
therapies are generally formula based and single
herbs are rarely used.
Prescription
 Monarch
 Minister
 Assistant
 Guide
Monarch
 the ingredient that exerts the major and leading effects
in a formula
Minister
 known as the associate ingredient
 to support the monarch drug
 treat the accompanying symptoms or coexisting
disharmony pattern
Assistant
 the ingredients can play one of the following roles
 to force the effects of the monarch or minister drug
 to treat the less important coexisting disease
 to eliminate the toxicity of the monarch and minister
ingredients
Guide
 two different functions
 to force the actions of the formula on the target
meridian area of the body
 to harmonize and integrate the effects on other drugs
Alchemy
 Alchemists can be considered the first pharmacists.
 In their search for the magic elixir of life, alchemists
experimented with different methods of combining
chemicals and minerals to create new medicines or
tonics.
Resume
 Sophisticated medicinal system
 Specialists for pharmacy
 Pharmacies
 Prescription
Greece
 Ancient Greece between 600 – 150 BC
 Part of Roman Empire
 Byzantine Empire
Asclepeion
 Greece medicine was closely associated with religion
in its beginnig. Sick people went to the temples,
treatment there included diet, bathing, exercise and
some religious ceremonies, these temples were told
asclepeion.
Hippocrates
 Ιπποκράτης (ca. 460 BC – ca. 370 BC)
 one of the most important figures in the history of
medicine
 The Hippocratic Corpus contains textbooks,
lectures, research, notes and philosophical essays on
various subjects in medicine. There is also the text of
The Hippocratic Oath.
 Anatomical knowledge wasn't the strong point of
Hippocratic medicine, there was a religious ban on
the dissecting of cadavers.
 His theory of humoral pathology became basis of
medicine for following centuries.
Pharmacists
 Rhizotomoi
 Migmatopos – seller of mixtures
 Pharmacopoeos – maker of medicine
 Pharmacopolos – drug seller who traved from market
to market
 Myropoeos or myrepsos – maker of ointment
Roma
 Roman Kingdom 753 BC – 509 BC
 Roman Republic 508 BC – 27 BC
 Roman Empire
27 BC
 The Western Roman Empire collapsed in
 The Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire endured
until 1453
Pedanius Dioscorides
 Πεδάνιος Διοσκορίδης (ca. 40-90)
 an ancient Greek physician, pharmacologist and
botanist
 wrote a five-volume book
De Materia Medica, Περί ὕλης ἰατρικής
 a base to all modern pharmacopeias
De Materia Medica
 more than 600 plants, 35 animal products, and 90 minerals.
 habitat
 botanical description
 properties or type of action
 medicinal usage and side effects
 quantities and dosages
 instructions on harvesting, preparation and storage
 methods of adulteration and test for detecting adulteration
 the veterinary, magical, and nonmedical usages
 location
Claudius Galenus
 Γαληνός (AD 129 – 200/217 )
 a prominent Roman physician and philosopher of
Greek origin
 His theories dominated and influenced Western
medical science for over a millennium.
 His major contribution lay in his
 classification of drugs by their pharmacological
effects, based on their qualities in humoral pathology
 organised the pharmacotherapy of humoral pathology
into a system of rigid and dogmatic procedures and
rules
 The system divided drugs into three groups.
 The first group - simples, they are defined as hot,
cold, dry or moist, each simple is further categorized
by degree of strenght
 The second group - composites, compounded drugs,
they were also categorised by their strenght
 The third - remedies that had a specific action –
emetics, evacuants and diuretics
 In his medical treatises Galen described 473 drugs of
vegetable, animal or mineral origin and many formulas
of for compound drugs.
 Three remedies were supposed to be panacea –
a remedie for each illness.
 Hiera picra
 Terra sigillata
 Theriaca
 Galenic concepts dominated pharmacy and pharmaco-
therapeutics until the sixteenth century, many of his
ideas persists much longer.
 Galen brought order to drug therapy
 various forms of vegetable drugs are still referred as
galenicals
 the preparation and testing of medicaments has long
been known as galenics
 Roman physicians were responsible for making drugs,
but they too employed special preparers of remedies or
owned slaves trained to do pharmaceuticals.
pharmacopoei – makers of remedies
pharmacotribae – drug grinders
unguentarii – makers of ointments
pigmentarii – makers of cosmetics
pharmacopolae – sellers of drugs
pharmacopollae circumforaneae – itinerant vendors of
drugs
 sellularii – vendors of drugs, who kept shops or stalls
 aromatarii – sellers of spices
 pharmacist, as now known, had not still evolved





