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Ancient Egypt
Published in Scott M. Jackson, Skin Disease and the History of Dermatology, 2023
The ancient Egyptians left ample material that can be analyzed for the purposes of describing their view of the skin and its diseases, and the natural place to start is the most significant medical document of ancient Egypt, the Ebers Papyrus. It was written during the reign of Amenhotep I in the 1500s BCE in the Egyptian hieratic, a cursive form of hieroglyphic writing. The papyrus that Ebers first saw was a long roll, 12 inches in width and 68 feet in length.18 It was later cut into 110 pages, each about 20 lines long; modern scholars have divided its content into 877 sections. It reads from right to left. The Ebers Papyrus is so complete that it meets the true definition of a book, and its completeness and perfection inspire awe upon viewing the plates as the scribe who wrote it made no mistakes anywhere throughout the work; no line, word, or letter is missing from the text.19 The translation of this ancient text is not without difficulty, if not impossible; several scholars of the last century have staked their reputations on that endeavor.20
Fenugreek
Published in Dilip Ghosh, Prasad Thakurdesai, Fenugreek, 2022
Fenugreek belongs to the Fabaceae family. The name, Trigonella, comes from the Latin language and means “little triangle,” due to its yellowish-white triangular flowers. It is also named methi (Hindi, Bengali, Urdu, Punjabi and Marathi), Hulba (Arabic), Moshoseitaro (Greek), Uluva (Malayalam), Shoot (Hebrew), Dari (Persian) and hayseed in English. Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum L.) is one of the oldest medicinal plants from the Fabaceae family, originating in central Asia around 4000 bc (Acharya et al., 2006). Its description and benefits had been reported in the Ebers Papyrus (one of the oldest maintained medicinal documents) in 1500 bc in Egypt. It is being commercially grown in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Nepal, Egypt, France, Spain, Turkey, Morocco, North Africa, the Middle East and Argentina (Mabberley, 1997). Due to the presence of a substantial amount of fibre, phospholipids, glycolipids, oleic acid, linolenic acid, linoleic acid, choline, vitamin A, B1, B2, C, nicotinic acid, niacin, and many other functional elements, fenugreek seed is one of the hot ingredients in the health and wellness domain (Ahmed et al., 2016).
Egypt
Published in Michael J. O’Dowd, The History of Medications for Women, 2020
Dating from c. 1550 BC, the Ebers Papyrus was bought by the German Egyptologist, Georg Ebers, from an Arab in Luxor in 1873. Ebers published a German translation of the text at Leipzig in 1875. The Norwegian, Bendix Ebbell, published another translation in 1937. The papyrus appears to be a collation of texts of diverse origin and is a valuable source of information on Ancient Egyptian drug lore.
Hysterical Solidarity: An Embodied Reflection on Contemporary Sexual and Reproductive Rights Concerns in the United States
Published in Studies in Gender and Sexuality, 2023
My own experiences of anxiety, chronic fatigue, mood lability preceding menstruation, and intense pelvic pain correspond with many of the commonly known symptoms of endometriosis, but in trying to make sense of them, I often doubt myself. Is this pain as bad as it seems to me, or am I being hysterical? When I first learned about endometriosis, I immediately associated it with hysteria—what else could possibly encapsulate the mysterious nature of traveling tissue or wandering wombs? The roots of hysteria are in ancient Egypt and Greece. The Eber Papyrus (Book of the Heart) and Corpus Hippocraticum (Hippocrates’ body of work) both describe hysterical symptoms using the image of an out-of-control reproductive organ: The uterus wanders through the body, making hysteria sufferers anxious, neurotic, prone to seizures, easily fatigued, and weak (Durns, 2022). The more I thought about my own endometrial dysfunction, the more frustrated I became. My lack of control over a routine bodily function felt, to me, crazy-making. Breakthrough bleeding, debilitating cramps, bloating, and fatigue have plagued me at least once a month for nearly two decades of my life, and yet I still wonder if maybe I’ve exaggerated the whole thing. Am I just another hysterical patient? Is it all in my head?
Suicidal Depression in Ancient Egypt
Published in Archives of Suicide Research, 2022
But physicians in ancient societies did not see suicide as an honorable act. In ancient Greece and Rome depression and suicidality were seen as a disease mediated by black humors (hence the ancient name of melancholia) (Laios et al., 2014). Earlier still, in ancient Egypt, a civilization with one of the earliest documented medical traditions stretching back to 2000 BCE, depression was seen as a physical illness (Bou Khalil & Richa, 2014). In surviving papyri from Egypt’s Middle Kingdom depression was mentioned as an illness that affects the heart and the whole body which accurately reflects the recently known symptoms of major depressive disorder (Bou Khalil & Richa, 2014). For example, in the following quotes from the Ebers Papyrus a connection is drawn between emotions and body diseases, particularly in the heart (The Papyrus Ebers, 1931):
Atopic dermatitis: new insight into the etiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis and novel treatment strategies
Published in Immunopharmacology and Immunotoxicology, 2021
Deepa S. Mandlik, Satish K. Mandlik
Natural products extracted from medicinal plants have been used since ancient times for the management of various diseases. The earliest use in Mesopotamia of natural resources as medicine dates back to 2600 BC. Also, the ‘Ebers Papyrus’ records of over 700 drugs back in 1550 BC are well kept [129]. Similarly, the Indian Ayurveda philosophy was introduced after the first century BC [130]. The production of drugs based on natural products is fraught with certain problems, such as consistency, identification of bioactive substances, difficulties in obtaining wild samples and unsuitability with high-performance screening of natural products [131]. To further establish the detailed mechanism of action of natural products is a challenging task. The pharmaceutical firms have shifted their prime focus on new product innovations to synthetic substances because of these challenges. Yet the results recorded from the recently launched synthetic medicines during the 1990s do not satisfy expectations [132]. USFDA approval levels have been poor for such medicines. Given these reasons, it has revived the trust in the development of medicines depending on natural ingredients. For drug development and study, many natural phytoconstituents used for the management of a number of diseases, including AD, are becoming important [133]. A significant number of herbs and phytoconstituents are used for the treatment of chronic hepatic disorders worldwide due to budget effectiveness, high protection constraints, long-term beneficial action and less side effects (Figure 6).