Lindsey Davies: Q&A - Royal College of Physicians

Regulars
Comment Write to us...
Respond to any of the articles featured or share your views on
RCP matters. Email us at: letters.commentary@rcplondon.ac.uk
Medicinal Garden
Image©Henry Oakeley
Olympian plants
From lizard meat to olive oil mixed with salt, Dr Henry
Oakeley FRCP looks at plants and the ancient Olympics
Olympics. Theophrastus’s Enquiry into
Plants (c319 BC) makes no mention of
any, while Dioscorides’ Materia Medica
(c80 AD) lists some plants that might
have been used. He recommended Rheum
palmatum, ‘from above the Bosphorus’
(Bk3, Ch2) for loss of energy; ‘oil of sweet
bay’ extracted by boiling the berries of
Laurus nobilis and scooping up the oil
so liberated (Bk 1, Ch40) and flowers of
dill, Anethum graveolens, marinated in
olive oil (Bk 1, Ch50) to be rubbed on to
‘lessen weariness’. The dried berries of the
honeysuckle, Lonicera etrusca, marinated in
wine were recommended ‘to abate fatigue’
(Bk 4, Ch14), but – as Dioscorides noted –
its effects were also toxic. The concept of
adding salt to one’s diet to compensate
for electrolyte loss and to reduce cramps is
‘Anabolic steroids, which can be made from
yams (Dioscorea species) gained notoriety in
1988 when Benjamin Johnson was stripped of
his 100-metre gold medal for use of stanazolol’
Since the ancient Olympic Games athletes
have sought innovative ways to improve
their performance. Wrestlers used olive
oil (from Olea europaea) to make their
bodies slippery; today’s swimmers wear
specialised swimwear to reduce drag.
Modern athletes take high protein followed
by high carbohydrate diets, entirely legally,
to improve performance; the ancient Greeks
ate lizard meat in the forlorn hope of a
similar effect. Plants also played a symbolic
role in the ancient Olympics. Winners of the
ancient Olympics received a crown of bay
leaves (Laurus nobilis), sometimes called
bay laurel and now used mainly as a spice
in stews, but whose sap may well have
given them an allergic rash.
The modern Olympic Games have been
marred by athletes taking performanceenhancing
drugs. The winner of the
1904 marathon took strychnine, which is
extracted from the seeds of the tropical
plant genus Strychnos and brandy
from grapes (Vitis vinifera). A cyclist
on amphetamines, synthesised from
ephedrine, present in the sap of the
primitive Ephedra, died in the 1960
games. Anabolic steroids, which can be
made from yams (Dioscorea species)
gained notoriety in 1988 when Ben
Johnson was stripped of his 100-metre
gold medal for use of stanazolol.
There is no evidence for performanceenhancing
drug use in the ancient
relatively new, but
two millennia ago salt was mixed
with olive oil as a skin lotion to combat
weariness (Bk5, Ch109). Of all Dioscorides’
performance-enhancing remedies, only
a decoction of Theban grapes (Phoenix
dactylifera) in hydromel – mead, an
alcoholic drink made from fermented honey
– would, by reason of its sugar and alcohol
content have been effective in improving
performance (Bk 1, Ch 109). n
Dr Henry Oakeley FRCP,
RCP garden fellow
22 Commentary n June 2011 n www.rcplondon.ac.uk