Introduction - Uppsala Monitoring Centre

ensured the transfer of Greek medical knowledge to the burgeoning
Arab Empire (Söylemez, 2005).
452–536 AD Tao Hong-Jing wrote ‘Bencao Jing Ji Zhu’ [Collection of
commentaries on the divine husbandman’s classic of materia
medica] based on ‘Shennong Ben Cao Jing’. He divided the herbs
into categories and qualities then added 365 new herbs to his
materia medica bringing the total number of herbs in this book to
730. In the Shennong Ben Cao Jing, Ma Huang 25 is described this
way: ‘Bitter and warm; it is non-toxic, treating mainly wind, stroke,
cold damage, headache, and warm malaria. It effuses the exterior
through sweating, eliminates evil heat qi, suppresses cough and
counterflow of qi, eliminates cold and heat, and breaks concretions
and hardness, accumulations and gatherings.’
454–473 AD ‘Xiao Pin Fang’ [Effective remedies] written by Chen Yan Zhi. He
discusses when to use higher doses or lower doses, e.g. ‘In mild
illnesses, or the early stages of an illness (in patients with normal
strength), the amount of physical strength consumed by the illness is
small. Therefore, the patient still has enough strength to endure the
adverse effects of the medication and the dose can be increased.’
He was familiar with drug tolerance, e.g. ephedrine. He says that the
adverse effects of purgatives are that ‘they exhaust the vital essence
of life and reduce physical strength.’ He states that ‘pulse palpation’
is important for prognosis (Mayanagi, 1987).
476 AD End of Roman Age with the fall of Rome to the the German tribes :
Vandels, Lombards, Burgundians, Franks, Visigoths and Ostrogoths,
and the start of the Dark Ages or Early Middle Ages.
480 AD Several works survive from Anglo-Saxon medicine in England,
among them a 9th–10th century translation of ‘Herbarium Apuleius’
the author was unknown and he is referred to as ‘Pseudo-Apuleius
(c480). It was one of the most copied herbal manuscripts, available
in English. This work contains recipes and uses of 131 herbs,
including Papaver somniferum (opium), Herba symphoniaca
(henbane) and Herba solatrim (deadly nightshade); and is therefore
more a prescription book than a herbal. The stylised diagrams of
plants are very crude and there is no mention of any adverse events
(Prioreschi, 2001) (see 1481 AD).
25 Ma Huang = from Ephedra sinica and contains ephedrine, an α and β agonist, and works mainly by releasing
noradrenaline from the nerve endings (Cupp, 2000).