Introduction - Uppsala Monitoring Centre

(henbane), opium and colchicum. (Mann, 1986). However, there is
no mention of adverse drug effects (Ebers, 1937).
The use of the poppy during the Minoan age (c 3000–1100 BC) was
more widespread as is shown by further archaeological discoveries
in other parts of Crete. Thus, in a grave at Pachyammos in the
district of Hierapetra, opium was found in a jar of the Late Minoan III
period (1300–1250 BC).
1400 BC Melampus, soothsayer and physician, used black hellebore for
madness (Pliny, 77).
Iron Age (1200 BC – 400 AD)
1134 BC Podalirius is thought to have been the first person to practise bloodletting
when he treated Princess Syrna for concussion (Halls Dalle,
1927).
1100 BC Nicotiana tabacum has been demonstrated definitively by study of
mummies and desiccated corpses dating from at least 1100 BC.
The Druids, the Gallo-Celtics, used the leaves of gui, mistletoe, as a
drink, which protected one from everything and made women fertile.
950 BC Homer’s Odyssey IV
Such useful medicines, only borne in grace
Of what was good, would Helen ever have.
And this juice to her Polydamna gave
The wife of Thoon, all Ægyptian born,
Whose rich earth herbs of medicine do adorn
In great abundance. Many healthful are,
And many baneful. Every man is there
A good physician out of Nature’s grace,
For all the nation sprung of Paeon’s race.
He is thought to have used the snowdrop, Galanthus nivalis (Moly),
as an antidote for datura poisoning and as such would be the oldest
recorded use of an anticholinesterase to reverse anticholinergic
intoxication (Plaitakis & Duvoison, 1983).
1065–771 BC Wu Shi Er Bing Fang 13 [Prescriptions for fifty-two diseases] lists 283
known prescriptions and 247 drugs, but contains no apparent
reference to adverse effects. It was discovered in 1973 during the
excavation of Ma Wang Dui tomb at Changsha, Hunan province of
China (Leung, 1990).
13 Fang = formula