Introduction - Uppsala Monitoring Centre

ingredients (that is, drugs) for the preparation of medicines, be they simple or
composed. A chapter was devoted to each plant and all such chapters were ordered
alphabetically by plant name. Each chapter usually contained the following:
(a) The most commonly used Latin name of the plant and its synonyms
(b) A description of the plant
(c) The part or parts of the plant or plants to be used for therapeutic purposes (i.e.,
the drug or drugs), and their state (fresh or dry).
(d) The preparation of the drug and, when appropriate, the proper ways to store it, that
is, the type of container necessary for good conservation, without interaction
between the drug and the substance of the container itself, and the maximum
possible length of conservation without alteration of the drug and its properties.
(e) The properties of the drug, usually expressed according to Galen’s system, that
is, according to the four primary qualities (hot and cold; dry and humid) and their
grade (on a scale of four degrees).
(f) The disease or diseases for the treatment of which the drug was used.
(g) A drawing of the plant, more or less developed or schematic. After the
translation period and the assimilation of Arabic texts into Western medical
sciences, the schema above was modified to include a list of synonyms that
included the Greek and Arabic names of plants transliterated into the Latin
alphabet and often adapted to Latin phonetics but which was deformed by
mistakes of all kinds. The list of diseases was very often preceded by long
quotations from previous authors’ works. Such citations were attributed and
ordered according to the probable chronological sequence of the authors, be
they Greek (known through their Arabic versions themselves translated into
Latin) or Arabic (in Latin translation). A further innovation was the inclusion of
medieval commentaries on these authors; these might contain the text of the
primary author, divided into thematic sections.
After Gutenberg’s invention of printing in 1436 the first herbal ‘Das Buch der Natur’
was published in 1471, followed by the ’Herbarium Apuleii Platonici’ in 1481, but it wasn’t
until the 1550s that the production of herbals, etc. really took off.
Apothecaries (UK)
Etymology: Middle English apothecarie, from Medieval Latin apothecarius, from Late
Latin, shopkeeper, from Latin apotheca storehouse, from Greek apothēkē, from
apotithenai to put away, from apo- + tithenai to put — more (Merriam-Webster
Dictionary).
1180 The Pepperers’ Guild (Gilda Piperarorium) was founded, which included drug
sellers, e.g. apothecaries. They were a company of traders or merchants in Soper’s
Lane, London, who imported medicinal and other kinds of spices, together with