Author: Apiladey ApilSin
Date: Oct 23, 2002 - 11:40

Message: Babylonian Pharmacopeia Author: - Apiladey ApilSin, Patron Date: Nov 16, 1998 08:31

The inventory of an Assyrian pharmacy listed 230 items, most of which were plants, but included dung of lizard and marrow of long bone. Some of these plants can be identified and others can be guessed at, but most will probably remain as interesting names of unknown plants. Read, for example, the following text, "If a man's tongue is swollen so that it fills his mouth [for someone who put something toxic in his mouth], you dry tamarisk leaves, leaves of the adaru-plant, leaves of fox-grape, and dog's-tongue plant; you chop them up finely and sift; you knead them with juice of the kasu-plant; you rub the top of his tongue with butter, you put the medication on his tongue, and he will get well." Sarmadu herb seems to have been taken for constipation. The azallu plant was described as "a plant for forgetting worries" and so may have had narcotic properties. Among the better known substances, pomegranate juice was frequently prescribed for ear problems. It may have been thought effective because of its astringency. A Sumerian tablet (circa 2100 BC) recommends, "Pound together: dried wine dregs, juniper and prunes; pour beer on the mixture. Then rub [the diseased part] with oil, and bind on [as a plaster]. Other plants I found mentioned were Artemisia, balsam, sagapenum, sumach, hellebore, cypress, juniper, Acorus calamus, cypress of the cemeteries, box, oleander (maybe they could separate the poison from the medicine), myrtle, tamarisk, Conium maculatum, shredded daisy, date-palm, lemon, plane, fig, apple, medlar, Tilla karani, laurel, opopanax, mustard, and cantharis.

Robert D. Biggs, in Sasson's book Civilizations of the Ancient Near East feels that there is insufficient evidence that opium poppies were grown in the ancient Near East. On the other hand, in the book Ancient Iraq, Georges Roux quotes a treatment for urinary retention, "Crush poppy seeds in beer and make the patient drink it. Grind some myrrh, mix it with oil and blow it into his urethra with a tube of bronze. Give the patient anemone crushed in alappanu-beer." They are both smarter than I, so I'll leave the decision as to who is right up to you. Most, if not all green plants have antibacterial properties to protect themselves from infection. Some of these chemicals break down two days after picking, others are still effective after being dried for a year. Some, while being great antibacterial agents, are highly toxic to people. Nowadays, the term, "turpentine", refers to a distillate. It used to refer to a resin (the sticky substance formed in or oozing from plants). The first turpentine used in medicine was a resin from Pistacia terebinthus, a tree or shrub from the Near East through the coastal Mediterranean. Other resins used came from pine, fir, cedar, cassia, galbanum, frankincense and myrrh. Some of these resins have some antiseptic value. At the very least, they are nontoxic, which is more than can be said for many Greek salves.

Among the best documented medical treatments was that for a medical condition resulting in many pustules or sores on the head (scalp). Many materials are used in the treatment. "If a man, his head is full of sores: dissolve boiled dung in hot water, shave.......cleanse until blood issues." One should not try to view this through ‘civilized' eyes. A people which burned dung in houses and used dung for the batting of hides would feel more compatible with it. After cutting away the diseased tissue, the tablet prescribes treating the wound with salt of ammonia (produced by burning dung) and some kind of powdered mineral (possibly belemnite). The post-operative care is described as, "Wash a fine linen in water, soak it in oil, and put it on the wound. Bray powder of acacia and ammonia salt, and put it on the wound, let the dressing stand for three days. When [you remove it] wash a fine linen in water, soak it in oil, put it on the wound, and knot a bandage over it. Leave the dressing three more days........Thus continue the dressing until healing ensues". This use of oil for dressing wounds (sesame oil until trade routes had been established with later producers of olive oil, such as Palestine) was popular for sores. Bacteria don't grow in it and, in fact, are killed by it. It also prevented the bandage from sticking to the wound. A different "wrapping for the head" included pine, spruce, myrrh, gum of aleppo pine, honey, "essence of cedar", and fat from the kidney of a male sheep.

Some of the asipu's pharmacopeia may be a bit more specific. They may require certain plants collected "over a grave", or "to be pulled up before sunrise", or "set out under the stars overnight. Sometimes the asipu prescribed a leather bag be worn around the patient's neck. It might have contained (YICK!) hair from a black dog, a piece of dirty (menstrual) rag, or pig manure. Biggs, in Sasson's book, Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, quotes a Middle Babylonian text, "If a man loses his potency, you dry and crush a male bat (?) that is ready to mate, you put it into water which has sat out on the roof, you give it to him to drink; that man will then recover potency." Another treatment for the same problem involves both male and female sex organs being rubbed with specially prepared oils, sometimes mixed with magnetic iron ore.

Among the minerals mentioned thus far are magnetic iron ore, and powdered belemnite. From Berosus' post, we can also add sodium chloride (salt), potassium nitrate (saltpeter), and crushed alkali (?).

Among the animal products, we have from this post dung of lizard, marrow of long bone, butter, dung, salt of ammonia (derived from burning dung), honey, kidney fat from a male sheep, pig manure, hair from a black dog, menstrual rag, and of course, a horny male bat. From Berosus' post we can add to this list snake skin, turtle shell, water snake skin (specifically), and Kushippu bird skin.

Alphabetically from both posts, the plants are:
Acacia- powder (Unknown use)
Acorus calamus- (known as the Sweet Flag)(Unknown use)
Adaru-plant- leaves (unknown plant)
Alappanu beer- (unknown whatever)
Anemone-Unknown species
Asafoetida (Ferrula Asafoetida)- A popular spice in India now, it is also used to treat digestive weakness, food allergies, digestive parasites, weak libido, asthma and many other ailments (see this link for many of the claims made by its supporters). Because of its apparent Cure-all capabilities, many feel asafoetida may be the long lost sylphium, which if it was its own species, was hunted to extinction in its home of north Africa during the days when the Greeks thought it was a cure-all. They were very similar, closely related plants, if they weren't actually the same plant. Asafoetida ranges from Africa to India nowadays. Only plants that are older than 4 years are harvested now in India to Afghanistan. The leafy crown is cut down to the carrot-like root, which is then shielded from the sun. The cover is periodically removed and the exudate removed from the crown. With each harvesting, a fresh layer is cut off the crown to bring out a fresh layer of exudate. In a previous search of the net, I learned that this material is used nowadays in some cat-repellants.
Apple (Malus sylvestris)- (Unknown use)
Azallu plant- (unknown species)
Balsam- See fir.
Beer- The alcoholic level wasn't high enough for it to work as an antiseptic but, like wine, the constituents of the beer may have had some antiseptic value.
Boxwood- Probably the common boxwood, Buxus sempervirens (unknown use)
Cantharis-(unknown use, unknown species)
Cedar- Resin and essence Probably the Lebanon Cedar (Cedrus libani), but I know of no medical use for it.
Cypress and more specifically ‘Cypress of the Cemeteries' (Cupressus species)- Unknown species.
Daisy, shredded- Too many species to choose from.
Dates (Phoenix dactylifera)- Unknown use.
Dog's tongue plant- (unknown species)
Fig (Ficus carica)- parts used might have been fruit, bark, or gum. Somebody told me it was used as an antiseptic, but they couldn't quote a source.
Fir- I don't know which species grew locally, but medical turpentine, which I believe is called balsam, is made from Abies alba and A. balsamea, neither of which grow in the Near or Middle East. I would suspect most fir turpentines have some medical properties though.
Fox-grape- leaves (unknown use, unknown species) Frankincense- a resin used in incense which comes from the plant, Boswellia Carteri, which grows in Somaliland and southern Arabia
Galbanum- a resin, but I haven't been able to find anything out about this plant or what it was used for.
Hellebore- I suspect this would be the Lenten Rose (Helleborus orientalis), but I know of no medical use for it.
Hemlock- The same poison hemlock (Conium maculatum) that Socrates took, but nowadays a drug is obtained from the leaves and seeds which is a sedative and a pain reliever. Perhaps these ancient physicians were able to extract it without the poison.
Juniper- At least the resin was used, this was the most popular ingredient in Mesopotamian medicines according to my books, though I suspect the species involved here were Juniperus drupacea (the Syrian juniper) and maybe J. excelsa (the Greek juniper), the only medicinal use for junipers that I could find was ‘Oil of Cade', distilled from J. oxycedrus in the south of France. This oil is used to treat skin diseases, so that might be a good guess as to how juniper oils and resins were used in Mesopotamia.
Kasu-plant- the juice (unknown plant, unknown use)
Laurel (Laurus nobilis)- Used by the Greeks and Romans to make victory wreaths out of, this tall tree has leaves from which an essential oil is collected to add to some perfumes. And of course, as the Sweet Bay, it is used in cooking, but I don't know what its purpose was in medicine.
Lemon- (unknown use)
Medlar (Mespilus germanica)- Once a popular fruit tree native from Greece, through Asia Minor to Persia, but now mostly forgotten. I have no idea how it was used medicinally.
Mustard (Brassica species)- Though one species is grown for edible leaves, and another grown for the seeds to make the condiment out of, I have no idea which of many species was used for medicine here, how it waas used, or what it was used to treat.
Myrrh (Commiphora Myrrha)- a fetid gum-resin is exuded when the narrow tubes between the bark and wood of this tree are cut. To find out how it is used, check out this link. It is found in Somaliland and south and central Arabia.
Myrtle (Myrtus communis)- plant and root were both used from this plant, but I can't tell you what it was used for.
Oleander (Nerium oleander)- a deadly poisonous plant in all of its parts, even the smoke. Perhaps the Mesopotamians were able to get some medicine from it without the poison.
Olive (Olea europaea)- the oil was an improvement over sesame oil as an antiseptic, but it wasn't available to Mesopotamia till trade was set up with the first grower to be reached, perhaps Palestine.
Opopanax (Commiphora erythrea)- In the same family as Myrrh, this plant also yields a fetid gum-resin from between the bark and wood of its trunk. It is now found in East Africa, so it was either traded for, or it formerly grew in Mesopotamia. The exudate will smell spicy, warm, sweet-balsamic, almost animal like and appear either orange, yellow or olive colored. It can be antiseptic, balsamic, antispasmodic, or expectorant.
opium poppy (Papaver somniferum)- seeds may or may not have been used in Mesopotamia to produce opium (see discussion above). Oddly, this could well have been the one of the first plants in cultivation. It is very possible that it was introduced into Mesopotamia from Asia Minor in the early days, but Asia Minor wasn't the origin of the plant. It spread, with man's help to Asia Minor from Switzerland (its natural origin), by the time Mesopotamia had invented cuneiform writing. The drugged state it induced was excellent for relieving someone of pain or for helping them to get through a painful medical procedure.
Pine (Pinus species)- resin and perhaps the seeds. I have no idea how it was used.
Aleppo Pine (Pinus halepensis specifically)- gum. I similarly have no idea how this one was used.
Pistacio- resin from the pistacio tree (Pistacia terebinthus), but I don't know how it was used.
Plane (Platanus acerifolia)-I've been unable to find any medicinal uses for this tree.
Pomegranate (Punica granatum)- juice may have been used as an astringent
Prunes- perhaps regularity was important to them. At least this fruit was used.
Sagapenum-
Sarmadu herb- leaves (unknown plant)
Senna- Senna was a laxative and cathartic derived from the leaves and pods of the Arabian Senna plant (Cassia angustifolia).
Sesame- seeds of this herbaceous plant provided the oil used as an antiseptic till olive oil became available.
Spruce (Picea species)- resin, Though the name for this species refers to the resin or pitch taken from the European kind (pix is Latin for pitch), I can find no mention of medicinal uses for spruces.
Sumach- I know of many American sumacs (including poison oak and lemonadeberry) and one African species (Rhus lancea), but I know of no Asian species nor any medical properties they might have.
Tamarisk (Tamarix species)- leaves, either helped remove toxicity or helped heal the skin in the mouth after exposure to it.
Thyme (Thymus species)- seeds or leaves, this herb has many species growing throughout the Mediterranean area, and I'm not able to find which one may have been used for medicinal purposes in Mesopotamia. I also can't say what its purpose was, but I'll bet it smelled great however it was used.
Tilla karani- I know nothing about this plant either.
Willow- these plants are mentioned in Mesopotamian pharmacopeias, though I can't be sure they were used as a pain reliever. Aspirin was a medicine derived from willows till they discovered how to make it in a lab. Many subsequent cultures in the New and Old Worlds used it for pain relief. Based on Georges Roux's statement in Ancient Iraq that there are no trees in lower Mesopotamia other than date-palms, I was just a bit surprised to read that skin boats in Mesopotamia were stretched over a willow-branch frame. I then assumed that willows in lower Mesopotamia were only shrub sized and that the larger ones were in the mountains. Then while researching this article for the umpteenth posting, I discovered that the Common Weeping Willow, one of the largest of them at 30 to 50 feet, goes by the Latin name of Salix babylonica. Now I'm confused. Either Roux was wrong, or the situation with the trees changed from the time the person who named that tree was there and the time Roux was there. Or the guy who named the tree was wrong. Maybe the guy found the trees in the Assyrian highlands and named them after our favorite city, I don't know anymore.
Wine and wine dregs- as with beer, the alcohol level isn't high enough to use as an antiseptic. The non-alcoholic ingredients in wine are known to have antiseptic properties though.
Wormwood- Artemisia cina is from Mesopotamia and its derivative is still used for expelling internal worms.