Ammonia gum

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Dorema ammoniacum D.Don
Vienna Dioscurides 6th century. Ammonia

Ammonia rubber or Ammoniacum also Armenian rubber (in the Middle Ages was this Umbelliferenharz as armoniac and armoniacum called) is a gum resin obtained from the stems of in the plains of Iran , Turkestan , Afghanistan and Siberia wild, man-sized ammonia plant ( Dorema ammoniacum D.Don ) from the genus of the umbelliferae (Apiaceae), emerges spontaneously and solidifies. Other types of Dorema, such as Dorema aucheri, are also considered suppliers of the gum resin drug . The species Dorema ammoniacum was first described by David Don in 1832 .

The yellowish-brownish to orange colored gum resin with a bitter-sharp, aromatic taste has a peculiar, somewhat unpleasant odor. It was used for medicinal purposes until the beginning of the 20th century . Today it is still used as incense outside of the medical field .

Dioscurides , Pliny and Galen already knew an ammoniacum , which was obtained from a plant that grew in Libya near the "Jupiter Ammon Temple" in the Siwa oasis , from which the drug also got its name. This North African plant is interpreted as Ferula tingitana . It is still used today for smoking in Morocco. Dioscurides ascribed a softening, irritating and tumors-dividing power to the gum resin of this plant. It could expel the embryo , soften the hardened spleen and liver, relieve limb and sciatic pain, relieve shortness of breath, remove water in the lungs , and heal white spots on the eyes and roughness of the eyelids . When applied externally, the rubber resin should make the "joint knot" disappear. Pliny, Galen and Alexander von Tralleis in late antiquity , but also the Arab doctors of the Middle Ages, obtained their indications for the "Ammoniacum" from Dioscurides.

In the Latin Middle Ages, the drug was only mentioned in the Circa instans . The Circa instans originated in Salerno in the 12th century . The description of the "Ammoniacum" given therein came mainly from the Liber de gradibus simplicium of Constantinus africanus, which was drawn from Arabic sources . Also based on an Arabic source ( Pseudo-Serapion ), "Ammoniacum" was described in the Mainz herb book articles Gart der Gesundheit (1485) and Hortus sanitatis (1491).

In the medical practice of the Northern European Middle Ages and the early modern period, the gum-resin drug does not appear to have played a role. It was not until the 18th and 19th centuries that the "ammoniacum" was increasingly found in the pharmacopoeias. Here, too, it was primarily the healing indications handed down from Dioscurides for which the gum resin drug was recommended, especially for bronchial catarrh and breathing difficulties , as well as as a component of mildly irritating plasters .

literature

  • Nicolas Lémery . Traité universel des drogues simples mises en ordre alphabétique… Laurent d'Houry, Paris 1699, pp. 32–33 (digitized version )
    • Complete material lexicon. First designed in French, but now after the third edition, enlarged by a large [...] translated into Hochteutsche by Christoph Friedrich Richtern ..., Johann Friedrich Braun, Leipzig 1721, Sp 48 (digitized version ) - 49 (digitized version )
  • Encyclopédie méthodique, médecine, par une société de médecins. Volume II. Panckoucke, Paris 1790, p. 155 (digitized version)
  • Encyclopedic Dictionary of Medicinal Sciences. Volume II. JW Boike, Berlin 1828, pp. 239–243 (digitized version )
  • François Victor Mérat (1780–1851) and Jacques Adrien Lens (1786–1846). Dictionnaire universel de Matière médicale et de Thérapeutique générale . Baillière, Paris 1829, Volume I, pp. 250–253 Ammoniaque (Gomme) (digital copy )
  • Hermann Hager . Commentary on the Pharmacopoeia Germanica. Springer, Berlin 1873, Volume I, pp. 224-226 (digitized version ) . Third edition 1891, Volume I, pp. 250–53 (digitized version )
  • Robert Bentley and Henry Trimen . Medicinal plants. J. & A. Churchill, London 1880, No. 130: Dorema aucheri (digitized version ) , No 131: Dorema ammoniacum (digitized version )
  • W. Blaschek et al. a .: Hager's Handbook of Pharmaceutical Practice. Volume 2: Drugs A – K , Springer, 1998, ISBN 3-540-61618-7 , p. 531

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eva Shenia Shemyakova: 'Des Juden buch von kreuczenach'. Investigation and edition of the recipe part of the Heidelberg Cpg 786. In: Fachproseforschung - Grenzüberreitungen. Volume 8/9, 2012/13, pp. 207–265, here: p. 230. Cf. also Jürgen Martin: Die 'Ulmer Wundarznei'. Introduction - Text - Glossary on a monument to German specialist prose from the 15th century. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 1991 (= Würzburg medical-historical research. Volume 52), ISBN 3-88479-801-4 (also medical dissertation Würzburg 1990), p. 113 ( armoniacum ).
  2. ↑ David Don. On the plant which yields the gum ammoniacum . From the Transactions of the Linnean Society. London 1832 (digitized)
  3. ^ Dioscurides, 1st century, De Medicinali Materia libri quinque (after Berndes 1902, p. 322), Book III, Cap. 88: (digitized version)
  4. ↑ Pliny. Naturalis historia . Book XII, § 107 (Chapter XLIX) (digitized Latin) ( digitized edition Külb 1840-1864 German)
  5. ^ Galen, 2nd century, De simplicium medicamentorum temperamentis ac facultatibus , lib. VI, cap. I / 37 (after Kühn 1826, vol. XI, p. 828) (digitized version)
  6. ↑ Alexander von Tralleis. Works. Edited and translated by Theodor Puschmann . 2 volumes, Vienna 1878–1879, Volume II, pp. 132–34: Angina (digitized version ) , p. 222: Suppurations in the chest cavity (digitized version ) , p. 258–60: Lack of appetite (digitized version ) , p. 384: Liver inflammation (Digital copy ) , pp. 446-48: Hardening of the spleen and liver (digital copy ) (digital copy )
  7. ^ Avicenna . 10-11 Century Canon of Medicine , Volume II. Revision by Andrea Alpago (1450–1521). Basel 1556, p. 180 (digitized) - Constantinus africanus , 11th century Liber de gradibus simplicium (based on the printed edition Basel 1536, p. 375): (digitized) - Pseudo-Serapion , 13th century (print- Venice edition 1497) (digitized version) - Abu Muhammad ibn al-Baitar . 13th century Kitāb al-jāmiʿ li-mufradāt al-adwiya wa al-aghdhiya - Large compilation of the powers of the well-known simple healing foods and foods. Translation. Joseph Sontheimer under the title Large compilation on the powers of the well-known simple healing and food. Hallberger, Stuttgart Volume I 1840, p. 48 (digitized version)
  8. ↑ Circa instans , 12th century. Print Venice 1497 (digitized version)
  9. ↑ Gart der Gesundheit , Mainz 1485, Cap. 279 (digitized version)
  10. ↑ Hortus sanitatis , Mainz 1491, Cap. 45 (digitized version)
  11. ^ Theodor Husemann . Handbook of the entire pharmacology. Springer, Berlin 1873-1875. 2nd edition 1883, Volume II, pp. 548-50 (digital copy )
  12. ^ Arnold Leonhard Cloetta . Textbook of drug theory and drug prescription theory. 10th edition (Ed. Wilhelm Filehne). Mohr, Tübingen and Leipzig 1901. p. 247 (digitized version)