Pedanius Dioscorides (c. 40 - 90 AD), a Greek physician. is known as the father of pharmacognosy. Pharmacologist, botanist and prolific author of the amazing De materia medica (On Medical Material) he outlines his vinegar cures and diseases they treat.
De materia medica is a voluminous Greek encyclopedia, or pharmacopeia, about organic medicine from vinegar and honey to goat dung. With widespread influence for at least 1500 years, Dioscorides is considered the most prominent writer on plants and plant drugs.
His natural remedies for hair loss are here.
Acetum is the now-obsolete word for vinegar or medicated vinegar. In alchemy the symbol for vinegar is a square cross 🜊. In Middle English, vinegar is called eisel, which is also the name for verjuice or verjus (green juice), a type of acidic drink made with unripe fruits.
Verjuice is popular through the Middle Ages and Renaissance in Europe. It's also used in Lebanese, Syrian and Persian cuisine. The original source of verjuice is sour grapes.
It's had a resurgence in modern times thanks to Maggie Beer. This beloved Australian chef made verjuice when a batch of her wine went bad, re-introducing the tart taste to international palates.
Vinegar Cures of Dioscorides
Dioscorides writes:
"Acetum cools and is astringent. It is good for the stomach and to encourage an appetite. It staunches excessive bloody discharges, either taken as a drink or sat in as a bath.
It is good boiled together with meat for discharges of the bowels. It is fit for bleeding wounds. Applied with unwashed wool or sponges, it keeps inflammation away."
Vinegar has a concentration of acetic acid ranging from 5% to 18% by volume. Typically, the acetic acid is generated through a dual fermentation process. Yeast converts simple sugars into ethanol. Acetic acid bacteria then transform the ethanol into acetic acid.
Acetic acid bacteria are rod-shaped, airborne and ubiquitous. Active in environments where ethanol is formed as a product of the fermentation of sugars, they can be isolated from the nectar of flowers and from damaged fruit.
Dioscorides writes:
"It represses the vulva and perineum that have fallen down, and broken bleeding gums. It is also good for gangrenous ulceration, erysipela, shingles [herpes], psoriasis, lichen [skin disease], and pterygium [eye membrane] mixed with some other medicine from those that are suitable.
Erysipela (Erysipelas) is a raised vivid red rash of the skin often on face and limbs. The cause is an extoxin of Streptococcus pyogenes bacteria. Bacteria enters the body through an abrasion, cut, insect bite or surgery wound in the skin.
Research, specifically on apple cider vinegar, identifies antimicrobial properties, which can kill bacteria such as S. pyogenes. Vinegar can be effective in combating these bacteria; or at least reducing symptoms.
Today's science says vinegar has the ability to eliminate microorganisms like bacteria and viruses, as well as treat yeast infections. Its antimicrobial qualities help manage ear infections, warts and nail fungus.
Vinegar is a natural health remedy in the treatment of specific skin infections and burns. Its antibacterial properties are shown to fight the Clostridium bacteria causing gangrene.
Dioscorides writes:
"Continuously applied with hot cloths it stops eating ulcers and gangrenous ulceration of the cheeks. Applied with hot cloths and sulfur it helps gout, and rubbed on it takes away bruises. With rosaceum and unwashed wool (or a sponge) it is good for burning fevers of the head."
"Inhaled as a steam it helps those with difficult hearing, or noises and hissings of the ears. Dropped in the ears it kills worms. It represses favus applied lukewarm with hot cloths or sponges."
Favus is a chronic fungal infection manifesting in raised splotchy patches. The fungus, also known as honeycomb disease due to the growth shapes, is identified in 1839. Before then, many people are misdiagnosed with leprosy and sent to a leprosarium or leper colony.
Acetic acid has antifungal and antibacterial properties. Vinegar may slow the growth of some types of foot fungus and skin infections. A 2020 study finds distilled white vinegar is effective in treating fungal skin disease.
Dioscorides continues:
"It soothes itching. For the bites of venomous creatures that chill, a warm pack of it is good; but a cold one for those that spit poison that burns. It is good against all poisons [vomitory] taken warm as a drink and spewed up again, especially against the drinking of meconium or [poison] hemlock."
At the time Dioscorides is writing, in the first century AD, the Roman Empire is a toxic den of murders, plots and poisonous intrigues. Lethal poisoning by mushroom such as death cap and herbs such as hellebore are common.
Antidotes to poison are also big sellers. It's said Nero tries to poison his mother Agrippina thrice, but she foils his attempts either by finding out beforehand, or taking an (unnamed) antidote. Agrippina poisons a lot of people to get Nero on the throne. Where's the gratitude?
Dioscorides writes:
"It is given against bloodclotting, or milk curdling in the stomach, and with salt against [poison] mushrooms, ixia [corn lily] and smilax. Sipped up, it expels leeches that were taken in a drink. It soothes an old cough but aggravates a new one."
"It is good sipped up warm for asthma. Gargled, it restrains discharges in the throat. It is good for a synanchic [abscessed] throat, for the middle ear that has fallen, and is rolled around the teeth (warm) for toothache."
So, a few ancient cures with modern science and medicine to back them up. Dioscorides is one of the great physicians and scientists of antiquity whose words still ring true today. Even ear worms, not the musical kind, are known to exist, though rarely.
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