Posted on 05/11/2007 6:19:24 AM PDT by Renfield
Scientists examining documents dating back 3,500 years say they have found proof that the origins of modern medicine lie in ancient Egypt and not with Hippocrates and the Greeks.
The research team from the KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology at The University of Manchester discovered the evidence in medical papyri written in 1,500BC – 1,000 years before Hippocrates was born.
"Classical scholars have always considered the ancient Greeks, particularly Hippocrates, as being the fathers of medicine but our findings suggest that the ancient Egyptians were practising a credible form of pharmacy and medicine much earlier," said Dr Jackie Campbell.
"When we compared the ancient remedies against modern pharmaceutical protocols and standards, we found the prescriptions in the ancient documents not only compared with pharmaceutical preparations of today but that many of the remedies had therapeutic merit."
The medical documents, which were first discovered in the mid-19th century, showed that ancient Egyptian physicians treated wounds with honey, resins and metals known to be antimicrobial.
The team also discovered prescriptions for laxatives of castor oil and colocynth and bulk laxatives of figs and bran. Other references show that colic was treated with hyoscyamus, which is still used today, and that cumin and coriander were used as intestinal carminatives.
Further evidence showed that musculo-skeletal disorders were treated with rubefacients to stimulate blood flow and poultices to warm and soothe. They used celery and saffron for rheumatism, which are currently topics of pharmaceutical research, and pomegranate was used to eradicate tapeworms, a remedy that remained in clinical use until 50 years ago.
"Many of the ancient remedies we discovered survived into the 20th century and, indeed, some remain in use today, albeit that the active component is now produced synthetically," said Dr Campbell.
"Other ingredients endure and acacia is still used in cough remedies while aloes forms a basis to soothe and heal skin conditions."
Fellow researcher Dr Ryan Metcalfe is now developing genetic techniques to investigate the medicinal plants of ancient Egypt. He has designed his research to determine which modern species the ancient botanical samples are most related to.
"This may allow us to determine a likely point of origin for the plant while providing additional evidence for the trade routes, purposeful cultivation, trade centres or places of treatment," said Dr Metcalfe. "The work is inextricably linked to state-of-the-art chemical analyses used by my colleague Judith Seath, who specialises in the essential oils and resins used by the ancient Egyptians."
Professor Rosalie David, Director of the KNH Centre, said: "These results are very significant and show that the ancient Egyptians were practising a credible form of pharmacy long before the Greeks.
"Our research is continuing on a genetic, chemical and comparative basis to compare the medicinal plants of ancient Egypt with modern species and to investigate similarities between the traditional remedies of North Africa with the remedies used by their ancestors of 1,500 BC."
Nurse, there's something wrong with the patient in 103!
What seems to be the problem!
Well, he's attracted a swarm!
You say that like it's a bad thing ....
(Where on earth did you put it all?)
Did you do any fancy comb, or just extract it all? I have some old-fashioned fancy comb frames stashed away somewhere, but I only used them once. Too fiddly and too much trouble, and I prefer the liquid honey anyhow.
The mites are quite a problem now, I think they reduce the hive yields. But we're using a Russian queen (boy was she pricey!) as well as the special bottom boards and the miticide in the off season. Seems to be working pretty well.
LOL, Ouch!
I sold most of the honey. I bought about 20 5 gallon containers and a zillion bottles and honey bears. I had a wonderful place to work in an old school house on what has been a small plantation. My extractor was on one level so the honey flowed into this huge long tray thing that the uncapped combs dripped into. And the tray was high enough so that I could put a five gallon container under the spigot at the end. It was really fun. People who haven't farmed don't "get" the joy of the harvest. Surrounded by plenty! Wow! I probably lost money, but it was fun. I also made mead with honey and pear juice. It as actually good. Well, okay, drinkable. AWESOME bouquet!
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Due to a network error, I had to start the message almost from scratch, and neglected to include you in the “to” field.
Berosus, could be an opportunity to talk about the Jew from Byblos. :’)
We just filled all the spaghetti pots in our friends' kitchen - 18 frames (two supers) kept both families in honey all last year. Didn't sell any - we ate it ALL! Yum!
We made mead years ago, and it was o.k. but nothing to write home about.
“...My happiest year, 1983, was when I got over half a ton of honey! Tulip Poplar and white clover mostly....”
Lucky man! I’d love to have half-a-ton of honey. (I’d be in mead city....)
Recipes, give us recipes? Please?
I remember I did approx 2.5 gallons of pear juice, and honey cut with water, simmered before adding the pear juice, and i can’t remember that ratio of honey to water, then pitch with champagne yeast, let it ferment out, rack it three times at 6 month intervals (kept it in a cool cellar) then I put it in champagne bottles with like a half teaspoon of corn sugar for effervesences.
That recipe sounds pretty good, if you used bittersharp perry pears. If you used regular table pears (Bartlett, etc), it was probably pretty bland.
Light honey by itself ferments to a product with very little flavor. It needs something sour or bitter (or, preferably, both) to add flavor, body and mouthfeel. Tannins provide the latter (as well as certain proteins, but those are hard to add to mead). I have a friend who made some very good mead about 10 years ago, just by adding fresh lime juice to his honey before pitching the yeast. However, I suggest you investigate a drink called metheglin. It’s made from a mixture of apple juice and honey, and therefore, is a cross between mead and cider. The best metheglin will employ juice from apples with high tannin and acid contents; crabapples are very good for this puropose (in particular, the Hewes Virginia Crab and Whitney crab are stellar). My forte is beer, not mead (although this is largely due to lack of access to affordable honey), so I won’t give you any specific recipes, but if you look around on the internet I’m sure you’ll find many. You might also wish to join CAMRA (the Campaign for Real Ale), which has many members who also appreciate mead and cider; rubbing elbows with CAMRA folks will put you onto many leads.
Good luck to you.
placemark for later.
Just...damn.
This was back in the poverty-stricken, rugged, livin’ in the serious country days. The pears were windfalls from our neighbors huge venerable pear tree. This was just an opportunistic use of honey and pear juice. We weren’t going for great, we were going for tipple.
Wrong. Honey contains many powerful antibacterials. Just why did you think it doesn't spoil?
“I don’t understand the breathless style of discovery in the article. Egyptian civilization was so much older than the Greek, of course they had medical practices predating the Greeks. Still, IMHO that doesn’t detract from Hippocrates’ accomplishments.”
Hey DAT yes you do... it is all about we of the West are Crap and the Islamofacist East is great..Actual historical timeliness and any relationship to contemporary Islam not required.
DAT frame of reference only.
Same principle applied to the Soviets and their “invincible T72” “http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHWHjK2VsUo
“Target Cease Fire”
lol
W
DAT
Smile when you say that, pahdnuh. :-))
Greece is arguably not Western.
Ancient Egypt had nothing to do with Islam.
How does a DAT know he ran into a team of Highly Trained Operators?
By the number of wires in his tracks at the next at halt check...
W
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