J Ethnopharmacol. 2017 May 10. pii: S0378-8741(17)30318-5. doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2017.04.021. [Epub ahead of print]
- 1
- Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, University of Thessaly, Viopolis, 41500 Larissa, Greece.
- 2
- Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, University of Ioannina, Panipistimiopolis, Ioannina, Greece.
- 3
- Department
of Ecology & Systematics, Faculty of Biology, National &
Kapodistrian University of Athens, Panepistimiopolis, Zografou, 15703
Athens, Greece.
- 4
- Department of Pharmacognosy and
Chemistry of Natural Products, School of Pharmacy, National &
Kapodistrian University of Athens, Panepistimiopolis, Zografou, 15771
Athens, Greece. Electronic address: skaltsa@pharm.uoa.gr.
Abstract
ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE:
Dynameron
is a Byzantine medical compendium, divided into 24 sections, the
"Elements", containing 2667 recipes, most of which inherited by previous
physicians of the classic ancient Greek and Hellenistic, and imperial
Roman periods.
AIM OF THE STUDY:
In
continuation to our previous study concerning the first and largest
chapter of the "Element Alpha" of Nikolaos Myrepsos׳ Dynameron (Valiakos
et al., 2015), this paper focuses on the plants quoted in the recipes
of the eight following chapters entitled "About Salts", "About
Honeypacks" and "About Spreads", all belonging to the same "Element
Alpha"; "About Antitussives" and "About Suppositories" belonging to the
"Element Beta"; "About women's Cathartics" belonging to the "Element
Gamma"; "About Drossaton" and "About Diachrisma", both belonging to the
"Element Delta".
MATERIALS AND METHODS:
Our main primary source material was the codex kept in the National Library of France (in Paris) under the number grec. 2243, which is the older and larger codex of Dynameron (Valiakos et al., 2015).
RESULTS:
The present study led us to the interpretation of 277 plants under different names, among which we recognized 57 medicinal plants
listed by the European Medicines Agency, one of them with negative
monograph (i.e. Chelidonium majus). In addition, there are identified
taxa related to those quoted by EMA as herbal medicines. The plants
appearing in the examined Elements belong to various families of which
the most frequent are: Apiaceae 10.11%; Lamiaceae 7.22%; Asteraceae
6.86%; Rosaceae 6.5% and Fabaceae 6.14%.
CONCLUSIONS:
A
total of 277 species have been catalogued, most of which are referred
in our previous publication (Valiakos et al., 2015). Among them, 56
plants still play a very important role in medical practice, as they are
used as traditional herbal medicines (www.ema.eu). This evidence is a
proof that the use of medicinal plants
remains valuable from the ancient times until today. The recipes, in
contrast to older medical compendia, contain precise measurements of
ingredients and dosages for every drug, which seem to reflect empirical
logic.
Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.
KEYWORDS:
Dynameron;
herbal medicines; “About Antitussives”; “About Diachrisma”; “About
DrossatÅn”; “About Honeypacks”; “About Salts”; “About Spreads”; “About
Suppositories”; “About women's Cathartics”
