Introduction - Uppsala Monitoring Centre

centuries. The Mesue treatise on purgatives divides the latter into
laxative (tamarinds, figs, prunes, cassia), mild (wormwood, senna,
aloes, rhubarb) and drastic (jalap, scammony, colocynth). In the
second section instructions are given on how to improve drugs that
are too weak or too strong, avoid harmful side effects and direct the
drugs to the organ intended. It passed through more than 30 editions
up to 1581, and has influenced all later pharmacopoeias.
Mesue the youngest from the first half of the 13th Century
(Prioreschi, 1996).
973 AD The first printed Chinese herbal was ‘Kaibao Chongding Bencao’
(Revised Materiua Medica of the Kaibao Era). It included 983 herbs
and drugs. It was printed from blocks (Hummel, 1941).
982–992 AD ‘Tai ping Sheng hui fang’ [Prescriptions from the pharmacy of
harmonious assistance] was commissioned by the government and
written by Wang Huaiyin at the end of the tenth century. It lists a total
of 16,834 prescriptions and gives details of the prescription, drugs
used, syndromes and pathology.
10 th Century The ‘Kitab-al-Saydanah Fi Al-Tibb’ [Book on pharmacy and materia
medica] by Al Biruni (973–1048). He describes 700 simples in 1197
entries.
Second half of 10 th century
‘Kitāb al-Aqrābādhīn’ [Book on compound remedies] ‘by Abū Bakr
Hāmid Ibn Samajūn, who was working in Spain, is primarily known
for an important compendium on materia medica entitled ‘al-Jami‘ liaqwal
al-qudama’ wa-al-muhdathin min al-atibba’ wa-al-mutafalsifin fi
l-adwiyah al-mufradah’ [The compendium on simple drugs with
statements of ancient and modern physicians and philosophers]. In it
the medicinal substances are presented in alphabetical order, and
the treatise is notable for the large number of authorities quoted by
the author (Islamic Medical Manuscripts at the National Library of
Medicine). The treatise begins with recipes useful for forgetfulness
(which was the topic of the preceding item in the volume).
Subsequent recipes are said to be useful for a wider range of
ailments, though complaints of head and brain dominate.
(www.nim.nih.gov/hmd/arabic/pharmaceutics30.html). Accessed 7 th
April 2013.
980–1037 Avicenna (Ali Ibn Sina) author of ‘Kitab ash-shifa’ [Book of healing]
and ‘Kitāb al-Qānūn fī al-ţibb’ [Canon of Medicine]. He recommended
the testing of a new drug on animals and humans prior to general
use (Carr, 1995). Ibn Sina’s protocols required the following tests be