[SunkenCiv]

Ancient DNA reveals ingredients of Roman medicine
by Ewen Callaway
September 9, 2010

Ancient Roman pharmacies must have looked a lot like vegetable gardens. DNA analysis of 2000-year-old medicinal tablets suggests the pills included onions, carrots and other garden vegetables.

Medical texts written by Pliny the elder and others detail herbal remedies the Romans and Greeks used, but not a lot is known about the contents of individual tablets, says Robert Fleischer, a geneticist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Washington, D.C. He presented early results from the analysis at the International Symposium of Biomolecular Archaeology in Copenhagen, Denmark yesterday.

His team obtained the tablets from a shipwreck off the coast of Tuscany that probably occurred between 140 and 120 BCE, based on items recovered from the ship, which was excavated in the 1980s and 90s. Among them was a wooden medical chest stocked with well-preserved tablets filled with what looked like ground plants and vegetables.

To find out what the medicines were made of, Fleischer extracted DNA from two of the tablets and sequenced DNA from the chloroplasts. Among the components were vegetables such as onions, carrots, parsley and cabbage, as well as alfalfa, hawthorn, hibiscus and chestnut -- all known to have grown in the Mediterranean at the time, or available to Romans. "All this makes sense," says team member Alain Touwaide, also at the Smithsonian. Sequencing also turned up a few head scratchers, including a new world plant called helianthus, that probably represent contamination.

His team is working on ferreting out such contaminants and obtaining more tablets, so those looking for a dose of Roman medicine might want to hang onto their trowels.

[SunkenCiv]

Team IDs Ancient Cargo From DNA
Exduco | 10-31-2007 | David Chandler - MIT
Posted on 11/01/2007 2:27:27 PM PDT by blam
http://freerepublic.com/focus/news/1919702/posts

Ingredients for Salad Dressing Found in 2,400-year-old Shipwreck
LiveScience | 08 November 2007 | Charles Q. Choi
Posted on 11/10/2007 6:37:47 AM PST by Daffynition
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1923784/posts

Shipwreck Yields World’s Oldest Salad Dressing
Discovery News | Jennifer Viegas
Posted on 06/24/2008 7:28:42 AM PDT by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2035633/posts

I’m not sure if this is the same one or not:

Greek Shipwreck from 350 BC Revealed
LiveScience.com on yahoo | 2/2/06 | Ker Than
Posted on 02/02/2006 3:53:32 PM PST by NormsRevenge
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1570539/posts

Deep-Sea Robot Photographs Ancient Greek Shipwreck
MIT | 2-3-2006 | MIT
Posted on 02/03/2006 2:51:12 PM PST by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1571269/posts

Ship wreck provides historic data
Famagusta Gazette | Thursday, December 20, 2007
Posted on 12/20/2007 12:35:27 PM PST by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1942436/posts

[SunkenCiv]

· GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach · · join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic · subscribe ·
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[Beowulf9]

“...and carrot-as described by Pedanius Dioscorides, a pharmacologist in Rome-was thought to ward off reptiles...”

We need to plant carrots around the White House, quick!!!

[SunkenCiv]

The Porticello Wreck: A 5th Century B.C. Merchantman in Italy
Institute of Nautical Archaeology | on web, January 2003 | Cynthia Jones Eiseman
Posted on 10/17/2004 8:31:49 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/1248367/posts

[Grizzled Bear]

...and carrot-as described by Pedanius Dioscorides, a pharmacologist in Rome-was thought to ward off reptiles and aid in conception.

If your attempts to conceive involve a carrot, you're doing it wrong.

[Tainan]

Sounds like a pretty good & healthy combination to me. Looks to be good for circulation, the liver, a slight urinary stimulant and a mild detox effect. Also looks like it would benefit digestion of food and providing support for the immune system.

I'd put it in a blender with some water and ice cubes...MMmmm!

[Pelham]

“and carrot-as described by Pedanius Dioscorides, a pharmacologist in Rome-was thought to ward off reptiles”

Solving the mystery of why we never see serpents and carrots together.

[wildbill]

It’s entirely possible that a pill combining yarrow and carrot was designed to enhance erectile function similar to modern day Viagra.

“Yarrow was meant to slow blood coming from a wound, and carrot-as described by Pedanius Dioscorides, a pharmacologist in Rome-was thought to ward off reptiles and aid in conception.”

“Slowing blood” might concentrate blood in the affected organ and the objective of aiding in conception can easily be connected to erectile properties.

And we know that ancient peoples often made a connection between the visual properties of a plant or animal and a therapeutical use for Man.

BEHOLD THE CARROT!

[Coleus]

they were good boys and girls who ate their vegies.