Available online 2 September 2015
Spirits and liqueurs in European traditional medicine: Their history and ethnobotany in Tuscany and Bologna (Italy)
Abstract
Ethnopharmacological relevance and background
Fermented
drinks, often alcoholic, are relevant in many nutritional, medicinal,
social, ritual and religious aspects of numerous traditional societies.
The use of alcoholic drinks of herbal extracts is documented in
classical pharmacy since the 1st century CE and it is often
recorded in ethnobotanical studies in Europe, particularly in Italy,
where are used for a wide range of medicinal purposes. Formulations and
uses represent a singular tradition which responds to a wide range of
environmental and cultural factors.
Aims
This research has two overarching aims
To determine how long ancient uses, recipes and formulas for medicinal liqueurs from the pharmacopoeias and herbals of the 18th
century persisted in later periods and their role in present
ethnobotanical knowledge in areas of Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna (Italy).
To
trace other possible relationships among ancient and recent recipes of
alcoholic beverages, from both popular and ‘classic’ (learned) sources
in N-C Italy and neighboring areas.
Methods
The
review of herbals and classical pharmacopoeias, and ethnobotanical
field work in Alta Valle del Reno (Tuscany and Emilia Romagna, Italy)
were followed of a systematic study of ingredients and medicinal uses
with multivariate analysis techniques.
Results
The
multivariate analysis clearly shows six different styles of preparing
medicinal alcoholic beverages: 1. The medicinal wine formulae by
Dioscorides (1st century CE). 2. The pharmacopoeias of Florence and Bologna in the 18th century CE. 3. The formularies of Santa Maria Novella and Castiglione (19th and early 20th
centuries CE). 4. The ethnobotanical data from Appennino
Tosco-Emiliano; home-made formulations based almost exclusively on the
use of local resources. 5. Traditional recipes from NE Italy and
Austria. 6. Traditional recipes from NW Italy, Emilia, and Provence
(France).
A total of 54 ingredients (29 fruits) from
48 species are used in different combinations and proportions in Alta
Valle del Reno (Italy) to produce fermented beverages, liqueurs,
distilled spirits and aromatized wines. Among these, 37 ingredients (33
species) are used as medicinal remedies. 15 ingredients (14 species) are
also used to prepare specific medicinal liqueurs. Most are addressed to
the treatment of diseases of the digestive system, dyspepsia in
particular, followed by diseases of the respiratory system symptoms, not
elsewhere classified and diseases of the skin and subcutaneous tissue,
fundamentally of allergic origin.
Conclusions
Although
medicinal wines, liqueurs and spirits are recorded in numerous
classical herbals and pharmacopoeias in Italy and other countries of
Europe these show in terms of formulations and ingredients little
influence in the ethnobotanical formulations recorded in Alta Valle del
Reno (Italy), they apparently play no role in present ethnobotanical
knowledge in Appennino Tosco-Emiliano and similarly in other areas of
Italy, France and Austria.
No (or very poor)
persistence was found of ancient uses, recipes and formulas for
medicinal liqueurs from pharmacopoeias and herbals of the 16th century
CE in later periods in the formulas in use in the pharmacies of Tuscany.
Popular
recipes are strongly dependent on the availability of local wild and
cultivated plants. Overall, Alta Valle del Reno ethnobotanical
formulations of medicinal wines and spirits are extremely simple
involving from one single ingredient to a few, which are locally
produced or collected and selected among relevant medicinal resources
used for a wide range of diseases in form of non-alcoholic aqueous
extracts. Fruits gathered in the forests are the main ingredients which
in this aspect show similarities with those from Tyrol (Austria).
Medicinal liqueurs and wines are in analyzed ethnobotanical data mainly employed as digestives.
Graphical abstract
Abbreviations
- AVR, Alta Valle del Reno (Upper Reno Valley, Northern Apennines, Italy);
- CET, Site of the Centro Etnobotanico Toscano.;
- CMB, Collegio Medicorum. Bologna (Italy).;
- DCM, Deputati dell Collegio Medico, Florence (Italy).;
- ER, Il portale della Regione Emilia-Romagna.;
- FIAF, Erbario dei Laboratori di Botanica Agraria e Forestale, Florence;
- ICGM, Istituto Comprensivo di Grizzana Morandi.;
- ICM, Il Collegio de Medici, Florence (Italy);
- IDR, I Docici Riformatori. Florence (Italy);
- Off. Prof. SMN, Officina Profumo Santa Maria Novella (Florence, Italy).;
- PCoA, Principal coordinates analysis.;
- PHCL, Pharmaceutical classical.;
- PHLA, Late pharmaceutical contexts.;
- TPL, The Plant List.;
- WHO, World Health Organization
Keywords
- Ethnobotany;
- Herbals;
- Liqueurs;
- Medicinal wines;
- Multivariate analysis;
- Pharmacopoeias;
- Traditional medicine
Copyright © 2015 Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.