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Georgia
State University
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Pharmaceutical Concoctions
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Project for the Introductory Course on Pharmacology Dr. Nydia R. Hanna Evolution of Pharmaceutical Concoctions Galen, a Greek physician practicing in Rome in 2nd century AD was the main advocate of a humoral system of medicine that lasted for 1500 years. Galen devised an elaborate system that attempted to balance the humors of an ill individual by using drugs of a supposedly contrary nature. For example, to treat an external inflammation, a follower of Galen might apply cucumber, a cool and wet drug. Galen advocated the use of polypharmaceutical preparations (or what may be termed "shotgun prescriptions" today). He argued that the patient's body would pull out of a complex prescription the substances it needed to restore its humoral balance. Paracelsus or Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim (born in 1493) was a medical rebel who spoke strongly against the static ideas of Galen. An advocate of chemically prepared drugs from crude plants and mineral substances, he believed that God had placed a sign on healing substances indicating their use against disease (eg. Liverwort resembles a liver, thus it must be good for liver ailments). Chemical processes, especially distillation, empowered the follower of Paracelsus to isolate the healing principles of a drug- its "quintessence". An emerging tool of science, chemistry, was adopted to make one of humanity's most ancient of tools-drugs. Paracelsus and his followers became the first pharmacists that made significant investigations into the chemistry of drugs during a 300 year period. Much of the research for this early period came out of the discovery of drugs in recently explored lands. Tobacco, guaiac, cascara sagrada, ipecac, and cinchona bark were among scores of new plant drugs from the new world. Cinchona bark, from which quinine is extracted, came to Europe around 1640 and created a crisis in scholastic medicine. Galen's elaborate system of balancing humors by using drugs of opposite qualities could not explain cinchona bark's efficacy against malaria. Not only did the bark cure malarial fevers, it had little effect on other fevers. Here was something Galen said could not exist (and Paracelsus insisted must)- a specific remedy for a disease. This conceptual crisis displaced the therapeutic agreement of Galenism with a period of about 250 years of therapeutic chaos until the present era of modern pharmacology. |
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, few of the drugs discovered had a significant impact on the prevention or cure of a disease. Industrial research on drugs provided several new agents that reduced the pain and suffering of illness, such as the analgesic and antipyretic aspirin or the sedative chloral hydrate. Even though pharmacies served as important outlets for sera, antitoxins and vaccines, most of the medicines compounded or sold by pharmacists around the turn of the century eased symptoms rather than treated root illnesses. In the early 20th century, with scientific pharmacology emerging and explaining how drugs worked on a cellular level, the concept of drugs and their actions held by professionals and laymen diverged. The public clung to outdated ideas of humoralism augmented by a modicum of germ theory. Such beliefs made consumers susceptible to patent medicine advertising, which mislead them into equating the effects of strong laxatives and analgesics with the cure of disease. Many pharmaceutical concoctions of this nature were compounded and advertised during the early 1900s. Amazingly, many of these preparations are still in use today, either sold over the counter, compounded by the elderly in a family, or acquired from other countries. These concoctions may or may not be proven to work. This project will be a fact finding investigation into what we know about the history of use of a pharmaceutical concoction, the presumed effectiveness, the probable method of action and the societal effects of the pharmaceutical preparation. Some of these drugs are combination products, while others are natural products used in tinctures or teas. Many of these appeared on pharmacy shelves during the first half of the 1900s, while others were important medicinals of earlier eras, or are in current use. |
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Concoctions to Investigate |
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Laudinum |
Scott's Emulsion |