Bryce Linkous

Dr. Emily Rush

CLS 180
1 December 2015
Dioscorides and De Materia Medica in Perspective
The history of human kind has seen an astounding number of medical treatments, ranging
from prayer to magic, from natural remedies to synthetic biomolecules. These changes have
come from new knowledge and new ways of thinking, in science, mathematics, and philosophy.
Each new idea has built on the foundation of others; ancient medicine set the framework for
modern medicine. The work of todays scientists and doctors would not have existed without the
scientists and doctors of yesterday. Antiquity should not, however, be confused with simplicity
and bad science. The great scientific feats of the ancient past, specifically in Greece and
Rome, are actually quite sophisticated, and this is evident in the medical sciences exercised
today. Many of todays medical advances and knowledge have records originating them to the
times of the Greeks and Romans. This is extremely evident in the pharmacology of ancient and
modern medicine. Great strides have been made in modern years in the science of medicine, yet
the pharmacological disciplines of today often reflect the same practices of ancient times,
demonstrating the sophistication of ancient medical practices.
My research calls on Dioscorides, a famous Greek physician, known less for his work as
a physician but for his medical writings. Through his volumes on Greek herbal medicine titled
De Materia Medica, which details thousands of natural remedies, Dioscorides provided
knowledge of common, natural medical treatments to physicians for nearly 1,500 years. The

great breadth of the book is a testimony to the depth of medical knowledge of the time, which is
often overlooked.
Its often with remedies such as Hippopotamus stones as treatment for snakebites
(Dioscorides p. 99, 25) and goats hoofs as a prevention against alopaciae, or hair-loss
(Dioscorides p. 103, 46) that the ancient medical sciences lose credibility. The experimental and
logical science of the day is shrouded in the ritualistic healing practices of magic and prayer.
These practices were not in the least the only medical methodology of the ancient doctors. Harry
Leicester, throughout his research in Chymia, dwells greatly on the ancient emphasis of the
humors, blood, phlem, yellow bile, and black bile, in antiquity with their belief in the humoral
theory. And this oversimplification of the human body holds very few similarities to the
assessment of medicine today (Leicester).
Ancient medicine is not a discipline that may be graded on its accuracy. Without our
modern technology, we as a society would be without most of our advancements, and not just in
medicine. How could one expect to know a human is made of cells if one cannot see, and
therefore prove, the existence of cells? The absence of microscopes, modern screening devices,
and even the Germ Theory, among some of the most basic of medical technology and ideology,
should not impact the perception of ancient medicine.
The ideas, practices, and fundamentals of ancient medicine still resonate today. Take for
example the willow tree. Today, one of the most profound and widespread drugs in the world is
derived from the willow: aspirin. Aspirin, or acetylsalicylic acid, is used today as an antiinflammatory and analgesic as an over-the-counter medication (NCBI, Aspirin). Dioscorides
describes the willow as having similar effects, as he prescribed it for use in patients with Iliaca
Passio, better known as colic (Dioscorides p. 75, 136). Additionally, Dioscorides identifies

many other circumstances in which to use willow, and each instance involves reducing pain,
from alleviating earaches to stopping bleeding. This falls in line with aspirin use today, as it is
prescribed, often in daily dosages, for patients with arthritis, heart disease, and other
inflammatory diseases. The willow bark is seen across the Mediterranean, and its prevalence
stretched as far as Egypt. Hippocrates recommended chewing willow bark to ease headaches
and general body pain and discomfort (Levesque). As Hippocrates was recognized across
Greece as one of the finest doctors of the time, willow bark was likely fairly widely used.
A fascinating connection exists between the ancient use of a plant known as epimedium,
or barrenwort, and its use in modern context. Dioscorides lists barrenwort as an ancient birth
control drug: 3 [doses] for 3 days keeps women from conception. According to him, this was
the only use for this plant, and it had to be taken with wine (Dioscorides p. 417). Modern texts
however list barrenwort as a sexual stimulantmen often take it for erectile dysfunction. For
women, it is prescribed for menopause. Barrenwort it actually a phytoestrogen, meaning it has
properties of estrogen and can perform as estrogen within the body (Epimedium). Estrogen is
typically one of the primary components of a modern-day birth control pill. This is an
astounding finding; the healthfulness of this ancient birth-control could probably be disputed,
however, to observe a fact as particular and unique as this is a medical feat considering the day.
An implication of this drug that likely came about with the use of barrenwort with the moral
standards of ancient Greece and Rome. Philandering was common in these ancient societies, and
could have perhaps been used to prevent unwarranted consequences of these promiscuous
actions.
Dioscorides also describes a unique drug, which he refers to as calamine, in De Materia
Medica. This substance, which he describes as having an outside like Clusters, in color like

ashes, but being broken, ashie and rusty within, falls within a subsection of text titled Of All
Metallic Stones, and includes remedies derived from mineral and earthen sources (Dioscorides
p. 623, 84). Modern medicine also refers to the drug by the same name, calamine being the
common name for zinc oxide (NCBI, Zinc Oxide). Calamine today is used as a topical
analgesic, often used to heal minor skin wounds and rashes. Similarly, in ancient medicine,
calamine was used to dry pores and scabs and cleanses their foulness. Interestingly, zinc
oxide today must be carefully prepared for use as medicine, for it is also a major component in
industrial goods like adhesives. Yet, even in ancient times, Dioscorides was able to outline the
careful procedure to prepare calamine, from extraction to refining the substance.
Opium, derived from the poppy plant, papaver somniferum, is one of the best known
plant-based pharmaceuticals in recent medical history. Morphine is still a very common painkiller in medicine, and its practicality in ancient times is demonstrated in Dioscorides expansive
descriptions of the plant (Dioscorides pp. 456-460, 65). Dioscorides describes three poppy
varieties, the third of which he notes holds the highest medicinal value. Bissets Herbal Drugs
and Phytopharmaceuticals does not credit the poppy plant itselfthe leaves, flower petals, etc.
with having as effective properties as the pure compounds derived from the plant, but much
like Dioscorides, describes the plant as a powerful sleep aid (Bisset pp. 419-420). Modern folk
medicine, according to Bisset, also frequently prescribes poppy for sore throats and coughs
Dioscorides unsurprisingly directs poppy heads to be used for the same symptoms, first by
soaking the heads in water, then covering in honey and finally licked to achieve the soothing
effect. Additionally, Dioscorides explains the poppy to have a general pain-relieving effect when
consumed, suggesting it for the treatment of illnesses from gout to stomach pain to headaches.

This falls directly in line with the properties of morphine, which has now been administered as
pain medication for hundreds of years.
In his book, The Healing Hand, Guido Majno identifies a wonderful plant used in
ancient Greece, as recorded by Pliny, called ephedron. The plants undeniable relation to the
modern drug ephedrine is further supported by its application in medicine in past and present.
Pliny describes the plants effect as so wonderful in its nature, its mere touch stanches a
patients bleedingits juices kept in the nostrils checks hemorrhageand taken in sweet wine it
cures cough. According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI),
ephedrine has been widely used in treating asthmaexplaining the connection Pliny made to
curing cough. Ephedrine has also been used in treating rhinitis, or a head cold, which would
fully explain the ability of the plant to stop nose bleeds (NCBI, Ephedrine). Perhaps the
importance of ephedron in its ancient context is further reinforced by its inclusion in Dioscorides
records as well. Dioscorides lists the plant as Ippouris, and recognizes it as a treatment for nose
bleeds, as juice of it doth stop fluxes of blood which comes from the nostrils, and for stopping
blood flow out of wounds (Dioscorides p. 438, 46). Interestingly, the NCBI identifies ephedrine
as a minor urinary tract infection aid, too, and Dioscorides describes it as having the same
helpful effect, as it was documented as a treatment to help pass urine.
The fact that Dioscorides book was so widely printed and read was a testimony to the
prevalence of these ideas throughout the ancient world. Beyond the printing of De Materia
Medica, as well-known of doctors as that of Galen have records of using these drugs, implying
their acceptance in the ancient world as legitimate medicine. Mark Ahonen, in his treatise,
Galen on the Diseases of the Mind and Soul, mentions Galens use of opium as a depressant,
stating: agitated and sleepless patients need to be calmed down by using sedative drugs such as

poppy (Ahonen, p. 158). If Galen used poppy (opium) as a doctor for the imperial family of the
Roman emperor Commodus, it is very likely this, and many other of Galens medicines, would
be used around the Mediterranean.
All too often the work of these ancient scientists and philosophers has been discredited
because of their lack of accuracy and explanation. However, in medicine, is it not the final result
with which we are concerned? So long as the patient is healed, and may continue to live a
healthy life, is the doctor not deemed successful? In these ancient times, with only primitive
tools and resources at their availability, the medical advances are actually quite profound. To
have outlined plants and drugs that are used thousands of years later is an impressive feat,
considering the implications.
What differentiates the science of today with that of the past is our ability to explain what
happens. Much of this ability is made possible by technology. And this is largely where
medicine, like all sciences, builds on the work of others. It begins with a simple magnifying
glass becoming a microscope, which develops into a scanning electron microscope, now one of
the worlds most powerful of its kind. Between preservation techniques, genetic sequencing and
editing, and producing entirely new molecules, our technology today has allowed such great
advancements. These new findings are what helps us develop new procedures, drugs, and the
like to achieve that ultimate goal: extend and improve the life of humans.
Knowledge we gain from the understanding of the human body undoubtedly aids in the
way we administer medicine, yet to have merely observed and documented in such great detail
these treatments without understanding the underlying biological concepts requires a level of
sophistication all on its own. These ancient doctors worked exactly as a doctor should: to
preserve and prolong the health of his or her patients. They followed the oath put forth by the

father of medicine himself, Hippocrates. They offered the building blocks by which modern
medicine has been founded. For, without the early discoveries of these doctors in Greece and
Rome, medicine as we know it today would fail to exist.

Works Cited
Ahonen, Marke. "Galen on the Diseases of the Mind and Soul." Mental Disorders in Ancient
Philosophy (2014): 139-77. Web.
Bisset, Norman Grainger., Max Wichtl, and Franz-C Czygan. Herbal Drugs and
Phytopharmaceuticals: A Handbook for Practice on a Scientific Basis. Stuttgart:
Medpharm Scientific, 2001. Print.
Dioscorides, Pedanius, John Goodyer, and Robert William Theodore. Gunther. De Materia
Medica. New York: Hafner, 1959. Print.
"Epimedium Effectiveness, Safety, and Drug Interactions on RxList." RxList. N.p., n.d. Web. 04
Dec. 2015.
Leicester, Henry M.. Biochemical Concepts Among the Ancient Greeks. Chymia 7 (1961): 9
35. Web.
Levesque, H. "Aspirin Throughout the Ages: A Historical Review." Rev Med Interne (2001): n.
pag. PubMed. Web. 4 Dec. 2015.
Majno, Guido. "The Medicus." The Healing Hand: Man and Wound in the Ancient World.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1975. N. pag. Print.
National Center for Biotechnology Information. Aspirin. PubChem Compound Database;
CID=2244, https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/2244 (accessed Oct. 25, 2015).
National Center for Biotechnology Information. Ephedrine. PubChem Compound Database;
CID=9294, https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/9294 (accessed Oct. 27, 2015).

National Center for Biotechnology Information. Zinc Oxide. PubChem Compound Database;
CID=14806, https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/14806 (accessed Oct. 25,
2015).