[105] NGP: Chapter 1
, “[105] NGP: Chapter 1”, in New Green Pharmacy: The Story of Western Herbal Medicine, 1 vol., Vermilion, 1997.
Turkey
Pedanius Dioscorides
Publication:
De Materia Medica (Περὶ ὕλης ἰατρικής)
Date:
1st Century
Description:
The first clear and comprehensive medical work which became the prototype for all modern pharmacopeias and which still provides a relevant reference today [105]. Containing descriptions of around 600 plants, many previously unknown to medicine, it continued in popular circulation until around CE 1600 [105].
Summary:
A surgeon from Anazarbus, Dioscorides travelled widely in Asia Minor and the Roman Empire with the armies of Emperor Nero [105]. Seeing the need for an accurate, definitive medical resource, he documented the medicinal plants he came across and wrote 'De Materia Medica' [105]
Mithridates VI Eupator
Dates:
134BCE - 63BCE
Date:
1st Century BCE
Description:
May have been instrumental in the publication of the first illustrated herbal written by his physician Crataeus [105].
Summary:
Mithridates VI Eupator, King of Pontus, was famous for his efforts to develop immunity against poison through the administration of Mithridatum, a cocktail of substances including many herbs [102]. Mithridatum was a common feature of herbals and pharmacopoeias throughout Europe for the next 2000 years [102].
Inspiration for Mithridatum may have come from a letter written to Mithridates VI by Zopyrus, physician to King Ptolemy, who described to him a remedy which was a combination of Megalium and the Egyptian incense Kyphi [102].
Agrimony (Agrimonia eupatoria) is said to have been named after Mithridates VI [105].
Crataeus
Publication:
[illustrated herbal, title unknown]
Date:
1st Century BCE
Summary:
Personal physician to Mithridates VI Eupator, King of Pontus [105]. Compiled what is thought to be the first illustrated herbal which included, according to Pliny, "painted likenesses of plants" [105].
