China
Africa
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
Salicylic Acid
Published in Anton C. de Groot, Monographs in Contact Allergy, 2021
In Warsaw, Poland, 5% salicylic acid in petrolatum was routinely tested in the early 1970s. Five patients had a positive patch test reaction to it. None had allergic contact dermatitis upon presentation, but all previously had used 2% salicylic acid in alcohol (n=4) or 5% salicylic ointment (n=1). The latter patient recalled that in the last period of treatment for psoriasis redness and itching occurred after every application of 5% unguentum salicylicum. Of the 4 patients having used salicylic acid in alcohol, 3 noticed that the use of this preparation caused ‘reactions’. All patients would occasionally take Aspirin (acetyl salicylic acid), but none of them found it to cause exacerbations or relapses of dermatitis (5).
The sixteenth century
Published in Michael J. O’Dowd, The History of Medications for Women, 2020
The conduct and requirements for midwives was discussed in detail. Always important to have at hand were oil of lilies or sweet almonds, hen’s grease and white of egg for application to the birth canal. A powder compound of bole armeniac, sanguis draconis and myrrh was required for application to the newborn infant’s navel. A large number of remedies were available to the midwife for application in cases of difficult or prolonged birth and could be administered as baths, electuaries, emplasters, pessaries, pills, potions or unguents. If the placenta was retained after the delivery, remedies were offered to stimulate its expulsion.
The Medicine of the People of Israel
Published in Arturo Castiglioni, A History of Medicine, 2019
Beside magic and priestly medicine there also flourished an empirical medicine. Thus it is reasonable to suppose from a passage in Genesis (xxxi, 14-15) that mandrake was used as an aphrodisiac; we see from a passage in II Kings (xx, 7) that for King Hezekiah, when afflicted with a grave plague, God advised, through the mouth of the prophet Isaiah, a plaster of dried figs. The preparation of medicinal unguents appears to have been customary, as in Exodus (xxx, 22-25), where an oil for holy unction is ordained, it is expressly stated that this should be prepared by the art of the apothecary. The treatment of wounds was secundum artem, as is seen in a passage of Isaiah (i, 6): “your wounds have not been bound up, neither mollified with oil.” And in the same Isaiah are the words of God: “I have broken the arm of Pharaoh, King of Egypt, and he has not been cured by the application of medicines or the applying of splints to bind and strengthen it.”
Frankincense diterpenes as a bio-source for drug discovery
Published in Expert Opinion on Drug Discovery, 2022
Hidayat Hussain, Luay Rashan, Uzma Hassan, Muzaffar Abbas, Faruck L. Hakkim, Ivan R. Green
Historically, frankincense has been employed since 2800 BCE and this plant is mentioned numerous times in ancient Egyptian medical records. It was employed in perfumes and as a burn incense along with being a component for the preparation of balm and unguents for mummification. This is supported by writings about frankincense and myrrh being renowned at the time the Bible was being written because both these compounds were extensively mentioned and observed to be the most often used together with important aromatic resins [5,6]. Frankincense was also employed in Islamic traditional medicine in Arabian countries because this plant is stated in Avicenna’s (Ibn Sina’s) Canon of Medicine. It was employed to treat tuberculosis, amnesia, infections, bruises, diarrhea, burns, stomach issues, and eye sores. Moreover, frankincense is employed in Ayurvedic medicine to treat various other diseases as well [2,7]. Notably, frankincense was approved at the beginning of the 20th century to treat various inflammation diseases and is mentioned in the 7th supplement of the European Pharmacopoeia [2]. On the other hand, frankincense is also employed in Chinese traditional medicine because frankincense-based pills named ‘xihuang’ have been employed to treat bronchial, nasopharyngeal, or pancreatic carcinomas [2,8].
Perkins’s patent metallic “Tractors”: Development, adoption, and early dissemination of an eighteenth-century therapeutic fad
Published in Journal of the History of the Neurosciences, 2019
As he explained in his patent release form, the points of the metallic tractors were generally repeatedly stroked over the painful areas (Perkins E, 1796c): The method which I have generally practiced, and which I have found most succesful in removing pains and inflammations from the human body, though I have sometimes varied the application as the circumstances of the case might be, is by applying a pointed piece of metal to the part affected, and drawing it across and from the part to some of the more muscular parts, continuing the application of the instrument a distance from the complaint; in some cases the pain is with greater facility removed by drawing the instrument from the pained part to the extremities; in some few obstinate cases it will be necessary to use friction upon the part till it produces a redness and small degree of inflammation … In removing pains from the head, the part should be free from powder and pomatum1Perfumed unguent for the hair or scalp.; the hair should be separated by a comb, and the instrument drawn upon the skin from the forehead to the back of the head, and down the neck; sometimes it may be removed by operating only on the forehead, back of the neck, or pit of the stomach. The head-ach [sic] which arises from drinking to excess, it does not always cure. … The efficacy of this means is prevented by all oily or greasy substances. (Perkins E, 1796c)