Volume 163, 2 April 2015, Pages 68–82
Research Paper
Ethnopharmacological approach to the herbal medicines of the “Antidotes” in Nikolaos Myrepsos׳ Dynameron
Abstract
Ethnopharmacological relevance:This
paper focuses on the plants quoted in the recipes of the first chapter
entitled “About the Antidotes” belonging to the first and largest
section “Element Alpha” of Nikolaos Myrepsos׳ Dynameron, a medieval
medical manuscript. Nikolaos Myrepsos was a Byzantine physician at the
court of John III Doukas Vatatzes at Nicaea (13th century). He wrote in
Greek a rich collection of 2667 recipes, the richest number known in
late Byzantine era, conventionally known as Dynameron and
divided into 24 sections, the “Elements”. The only existing translation
of this work is in Latin, released in 1549 in Basel by Leonhart Fuchs.
Since no other translation has ever been made in any language, this work
still remains poorly known.
Materials and Methods:Our
primary source material was the codex written in 1339 and kept in the
National Library of France (in Paris) under the number grec. 2243. For
comparison, all the other codices, which contain the entire manuscript,
have also been studied, namely the codices EBE 1478 (National Library of
Greece, Athens), grec. 2237 and grec. 2238 (both in Paris), Lavra Ε 192
(Mont Athos, Monastery of Megisti Lavra), Barocci 171 (Oxford) and
Revilla 83 (Escorial).
Results: The
exhaustive study of the “About the Antidotes” led us to the
interpretation of 293 plant names among which we recognized 39 medicinal
plants listed by the European Medicines Agency, (Herbal Medicines,
www.ema.eu); the therapeutic indications of some of them provided by
Myrepsos were similar or related to their current ones, as given in
their monographs. The plants belong to various families of which the
most frequent are: Apiaceae 10.6%; Lamiaceae 9.2%; Asteraceae 8.9%;
Fabaceae 6.8% and Rosaceae 5.1%. The most frequently mentioned plants
even under several different names are the following: Apium graveolens L., Crocus sativus L., Nardostachys jatamansi (D. Don) DC., Zingiber officinale Roscoe, Rosa centifolia L., Syzygium aromaticum (L.) Merr. & L.M. Perry, Papaver somniferum L., Costus sp., Petroselinum crispum (Mill.) Fuss, Anethum graveolens L., Foeniculum vulgare Mill., Daucus carota L.
Conclusions:
This research led us to the conclusion that the content of “About the
Antidotes” is a valuable source for the study of recipes based mainly on
medicinal plants, most of them inherited from classic ancient Greek and
Hellenistic periods.
Graphical abstract
Keywords
- Historical texts;
- Dynameron;
- About the Antidotes;
- Nikolaos Myrepsos;
- Byzantine medicine;
- Herbal medicines
