Pedanius Dioscorides is a surgeon in the army of Emperor Nero. His knowledge of surgery and other medical skills suggests study in Alexandria, renowned for medical schools and especially anatomy. Tarsus in south Turkey is also a vibrant center of culture and learning.
Not much is known about his early life. Considered the father of pharmacognosy, Dioscorides writes his Magnum Opus De materia medica (On Medicine) between 50 and 70 AD. This massive comprehensive work rules the medical scene for c. 1500 years.
Pharmacognosy is a field of medical science focused on drugs in their natural state. This discipline encompasses origins, chemical characteristics, biological impacts, modes of action, medicinal applications, and potential side effects of medications.
De materia medica is arranged as a pharmacopeia, a book describing chemicals, drugs, and other substances and how they are used as medicines. It's composed of five volumes, one on plant products, one on animal products, two on roots and one on wines and vinegar.
Although many writings are attributed to him, definitive authorship is confirmed only for De materia medica (On Medicine). This pharmacopeia is the primary medical reference until the 17th century. It's in constant publication from its first writing.
In a great example of his broader work, Dioscorides describes the Iris, considered to be Iris germanica or Iris vulgaris Germanica, and its health effects:
IRIS
The health benefits listed by Dioscorides come from the mild toxins in all parts of the plant.
Pedanius Dioscorides:
"Iris is named because of its resemblance to the rainbow in heaven [In Greek mythology Iris is the personification of the rainbow]. It bears leaves like little daggers but bigger, broader and fatter; the flowers on the stalk are bent in one over against another and have varied colors of white, pale, black, purple or azure.
The roots underneath are knotty and strong with a sweet taste. These when cut should be dried in the shade and stored with a linen thread put through them. The best is from Illyria and Macedonia and the best of these has a thick stumpy root, hard to break, of a faint yellow color with an especially good scent and very bitter to the taste.
"It has a sound smell and does not incline to nastiness or cause sneezing when pounded. The second is from Libya. It is white in color, bitter to the taste, next in strength, and when these grow old they are worm-eaten yet then they smell even sweeter. They are all warming and reduce the intensity of symptoms.
They are suitable against coughs and reduce the intensity of thick mucus that is hard to get up. Seven teaspoonfuls of a decoction (taken as a drink in honey water) purge thick mucus and bile. They also cause sleep, provoke tears, and heal suffering in the bowels.
"Taken as a drink with vinegar they help those bitten by venomous creatures, the splenetic (bad-tempered or spiteful), those troubled with convulsive fits or chilled and stiff with cold, and those who drop their food. Taken in a drink with wine they bring out the menstrual flow.
A decoction of them is suitable for women’s warm packs that soften and open their private places; for sciatica (taken as an infusion); for fistulas, and all sores and wounds that it fills up with flesh. Applied as an eye salve with honey they draw out particles.
"Chewed and applied as a poultice they soften swellings and old hard swellings, and dried they fill up ulcers and clean them. With honey they fill up bare bones with flesh. They are good for headaches applied as a poultice with vinegar and rosaceum.
Daubed on with white hellebore and twice as much honey they clean off freckles and sunburn. They are also mixed with suppositories, warm compresses and fatigue removers, and in general they are of considerable use.
This is also called iris illyrica, thelpida, urania, catharon or thaumastos. The Romans call it radix marica, some, gladiolus, others, opertritis or consecratrix, and the Egyptians call it nar."
The use of mild toxins are part of the medicine and theories of many later physicians. It's especially championed by Paracelsus in the Renaissance, who in turn influences medical minds of later times.
In China's formative era of pharmacy (200 - 800 AD), poisons are found in healing agents to cure everything from chills to pains to epidemics. Careful doses of venoms and poisons are used in Chinese Traditional Medicine even today.
De medica materia also covers animal derivatives and minerals in therapy, but the focus is largely botanical. It details over 600 plants, with information on habitat, preparation processes, and medicinal properties. The Dioscoreaceae, or yam family, is named for him.
Over the years the volumes grow. Translations and clarifications are jotted into the margins, later duplicated in print versions. The printing press is not invented until 1440 AD thus all previous versions are painstakingly recorded by others, or Dioscorides during his lifetime.
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