Scientists from the Medical University of Wrocław and the University of Wrocław are trying to recreate drugs used in the distant past and see if they can work. They started their work with teriaku which was supposed to protect against the plague.
- As part of the project financed by the National Science Center, the process of reconstituting teriak has started. The specificity known since antiquity had, among others, protect against plague
- You need 71 ingredients to prepare it. Not all of them are easy to get hold of. For example, a viper, whose meat is needed to create teriak, is under protection in Poland. Some of the ingredients were obtained thanks to contraband
- Scientists, by recreating a drug according to old recipes, want to test the old techniques of producing medicaments and their effectiveness. It turns out that sometimes the healing properties were unknowingly killed in the process of creating drugs
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“Teriak was known already in antiquity and his popularity lasted until the XNUMXth century. It was used practically all over Europe as an antidote to poisoning, but it was especially appreciated during the pandemic. It was supposed to protect against illness and death, so it was also taken prophylactically»Explains Dr. Maciej Włodarczyk from the Medical University of Wrocław.
The team led by Dr. Jakub Węglorz from the Institute of History of the University of Wrocław is one step away from gathering all 71 ingredients of the old drug.
Many recipes for teriak have survived in Europe, but Wrocław scientists decided to resist only on the provisions of the XNUMXth-XNUMXth centuries, created in the territory of the Republic of Poland.
“We also wanted these recipes to be actually put into practice. We want to reproduce the medicine actually taken by people as accurately as possible »- adds Dr. Danuta Raj.
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Secrets of old receptors
In search of old recipes, historians searched dozens of documents, incl. old Polish diaries, letters, diaries, but also recipients, dispensatories and herbaria. As a basis, researchers adopted a prescription used by a licensed pharmacist in 1630, the use of which has been confirmed historically.
«One of the problems with identifying the ingredients of pre-Linnaeus drugs is the non-standard nomenclature. Pharmacists wrote in Latin, often using their own abbreviations. Often one substance could have different names depending on the region or even the author. Moreover, some of the names have different meanings today, »explains Dr. Raj.
There were pitfalls for researchers of the pharmaceutical past. Some plants are under strict protection, some are no longer used in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries, so no one grows them.
«You have to look for them in the regions where they occur. It is not so bad when these are Mediterranean countries, it is worse when plants have to be harvested in Madagascar or Uganda. Scientists use any means, writing hundreds of e-mails and sending out tenders wherever they can. They ask for help from embassies, religious communities, but also friends, travelers and botanists. Thanks to them, it is possible to obtain new ingredients from around the world »- you can read in the press release.
The viper meat, which is a protected species in Poland, necessary for the production of teriak, was obtained thanks to cooperation with the State Forests, because For research purposes, foresters collected specimens of reptiles that died under the wheels.
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Even smuggled ingredients
The so-called beaver costume, i.e. the secretion from the scent glands of our native beaver, was obtained thanks to contraband seized by the customs services.
«We read in a newspaper quite by accident that such unusual goods were seized on the Polish-Belarusian border. In Belarus, beaver glands are still used to make traditional tinctures, so smuggling is booming. We asked the National Revenue Administration to hand over the seized goods to us for research purposes. It required a lot of formalities, but thanks to the kindness of the Podlasie Customs and Tax Office officials, we have managed and have several pieces of “beaver clothing” for our Teriak “- says Dr. Włodarczyk.
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Scientists only missing opiumwhich requires the consent of the GIF to purchase, because it is a narcotic substance. When this problem is solved, the restoration process will begin, during which scientists will turn into old Polish pharmacists.
Dr. Raj describes that during the analysis, researchers check which ingredients are active in a given preparation.
«It often turns out that due to the way they were prepared, they lost their original properties. An example is the lily of the valley, the flowers of which contain cardiac glycosides. Preparations made of it could be used as cardiac, if seventeenth-century pharmacists did not prepare a distillate from it. Glycosides do not pass into the distillate, so the preparation is deprived of what is the most therapeutically valuable in the plant “- noted Dr. Raj.
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