Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, School of Health Sciences, University of Thessaly, Viopolis, 41500, Larissa, Greece.
Department of Pharmacology, Medical Faculty, School of Health Sciences, University of Ioannina, 451 10, Ioannina, Greece.
J Ethnopharmacol. 2021 Aug 10;276:114191. doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2021.114191. Epub 2021 May 7.
Dynameron is a Byzantine medical compendium, divided into 24 sections, in accordance with the letters of the Greek alphabet. Being the largest medical and pharmaceutical book ever written in Byzantium, Dynameron contains 2667 recipes intended to treat many pathological conditions. A lot of information convey to us through prescriptions. In addition to plants, Nikolaos Myrepsos proposes the use of many animals, animal parts and animal by-products, for the treatment of various diseases. This article presents for the first time a full account of the animal products included in Dynameron.
In continuation to our previous studies, this paper focuses on the use of animal products in composite medicines described in Dynameron. An effort was made to trace down the use of similar or identical animal products in texts of earlier medical writers. Recording recipes with animals or animal products intended for use in everyday medical practice highlights the timeless belief in their healing properties.
Our main source of material is the recent digital edition of Nikolaos Myrepsos' Dynameron. This huge treatise was written in the 13 century and reflects in many ways the long medical tradition of the Greek, the Hellenistic and the Roman eras, having also received influences from the materia medica of Arabic medicine. In addition, information from dictionaries and databases were cross-checked to confirm and classify the animals and their products and to identify them. For the various pathological conditions these products are meant for, we have used the current medical terminology.
In the present study, we could identify the therapeutic use of 93 animals. In several instances, Myrepsos suggests the use of specific organs of an animal, and for that reason he includes in his treatise 16 anatomical parts of different animals. Moreover, Dynameron comprises also 34 animal by-products, such as milk and honey. Medicines of animal origin are used in recipes concerning diseases of the respiratory, the digestive, the cardiovascular and the urinary system, as well as gynecological diseases, and ailments of the eyes, the ears and the skin.
Of the 2667 recipes of Dynameron, 344 recipes contain medicines of animal origin, which can be detected in totally 769 citations. In addition, 626 citations for animal by-products are found in 268 recipes. Honey and milk are quoted in 2136 recipes, mostly as excipients. Dietary instructions are present on many occasions, reflecting the attitude for a healthy everyday life, similar to the modern beliefs pertaining to food as an essential factor for a good health.
《Dynameron》是一本拜占庭医学纲要，分为 24 个部分，按照希腊字母表的顺序排列。作为拜占庭有史以来编写的最大的医学和制药书籍，《Dynameron》包含了 2667 个旨在治疗多种病理状况的配方。通过这些处方，我们可以了解到很多信息。除了植物，尼古拉·迈雷普索斯（Nikolaos Myrepsos）还提出使用许多动物、动物部分和动物副产品来治疗各种疾病。本文首次全面介绍了《Dynameron》中包含的动物产品。
继我们之前的研究之后，本文重点介绍了《Dynameron》中描述的复合药物中使用的动物产品。我们努力追溯在早期医学作家的著作中使用类似或相同的动物产品的情况。记录用于日常医疗实践的含有动物或动物产品的配方，突出了人们对其治疗特性的永恒信念。
我们的主要材料来源是最近出版的尼古拉·迈雷普索斯（Nikolaos Myrepsos）的《Dynameron》数字版。这部巨著写于 13 世纪，在许多方面反映了希腊、希腊化和罗马时代的悠久医学传统，也受到了阿拉伯医学药物学的影响。此外，我们还交叉核对了词典和数据库中的信息，以确认和分类动物及其产品，并对其进行鉴定。对于这些产品所针对的各种病理状况，我们使用了当前的医学术语。
在本研究中，我们可以确定 93 种动物的治疗用途。在某些情况下，迈雷普索斯建议使用动物的特定器官，因此他在他的论文中包含了 16 种不同动物的解剖部位。此外，《Dynameron》还包括 34 种动物副产品，如牛奶和蜂蜜。动物来源的药物用于治疗呼吸系统、消化系统、心血管系统和泌尿系统疾病，以及妇科疾病、眼睛、耳朵和皮肤疾病的配方中。
在《Dynameron》的 2667 个配方中，有 344 个配方含有动物来源的药物，可以在总共 769 个引文中检测到。此外，在 268 个配方中还发现了 626 个动物副产品的引文。蜂蜜和牛奶在 2136 个配方中被引用，主要用作赋形剂。在许多情况下都有饮食说明，反映了对健康日常生活的态度，类似于现代关于食物作为健康要素的观念。
