The blue monkshood in medical history

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Left: Wolfwort ( Aconitum lycoctonum ). Right: Eisenhütlein ( Aconitum napellus ). Hieronymus Bock 1546. Further historical images:

Blue monkshood ( Aconitum napellus ). According to Theophrastus , the name aconitum comes from a "village Akona in the area of ​​the Mariandynen". According to Greek mythology , the plant emerged from the drool of the dog Kerberos , when Heracles dragged him out of the underworld. (Detailed information about the naming of Sprengel as well as Koehler's medicinal plants .)

The plant names listed in the herbal books of antiquity, late antiquity and the Middle Ages can only be assigned very uncertainly to the plant species known to us.

In the 1st century Dioscurides and Pliny wrote about plants they called aconiton or otherwise aconiton . They also recommended using these plants as poison bait, as an antidote after scorpion stings or as an admixture to pain relievers. In the 2nd century Galen also mentioned two types of aconiton . One of them should be used for wound cleansing.

Of the medieval authors, only Avicenna and (citing Avicenna) Konrad von Megenberg reported on a plant that later authors interpreted as monkshood. Avicenna reported in the Canon of Medicine on the effects of a plant that was called napellus in the Latin translations of the Canon . According to the ancient theory of quality , he classified them as "hot and dry in the highest degree". Applied externally or taken as a preparation in a potion, it should be useful against skin diseases known as albaras and leprosy . More than half a drachma, according to Avicenna's personal assessment, also less, was considered a lethal dose. As an antidote, he gave the mouse, which feeds on the root of napellus .

In the early modern period , monkshood species were mentioned rather casually. The fathers of botany tried to identify the aconiton and napellus in the local flora. They agreed on the yellow monkshood hat and the blue monkshood hat, but also included the berry in their choice. They advocated the use of the blue monkshood as poison bait and (prepared as an ointment) to drive away lice and nits.

The Italian doctor-botanist Pietro Andrea Mattioli first administered the poison of the blue monkshood and then an antidote to those sentenced to death . If the condemned survived, they were given freedom.

In the middle of the 18th century, the Viennese doctor Anton von Störck treated nerve pain and poorly healing wounds by administering pressed juice extracts from the leaves and stems of the blue monkshood. In 1790, Samuel Hahnemann reported that he had also successfully treated nerve pain and gout using the Störck method. Until the end of the 19th century, preparations made from the roots of the blue monkshood were prescribed as a remedy for nerve pain. In 1833, Philipp Lorenz Geiger and Ludwig Hesse presented the alkaloid aconitine .

All plant parts of the blue monkshood are highly poisonous. Even two grams of the root are deadly. The plant is under nature protection in Germany. In Bavaria it is on the red list for early warning.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Vitus outlet 1479 ( picture link )
  2. ↑ Leonhart Fuchs . Wolfroot. 1543, chapter 30 ( image link )
  3. ↑ Kurt Sprengel (ed.): Theophrast's natural history of plants. Altona 1822, Volume 2, pp. 384–386 (Book 9, Chapter 16, Section 4) (digitized version)
  4. ^ " Koehler's medicinal plants 1887"> Koehler's medicinal plants . Volume I, No 72. Gera 1887. ( digitized version )
  5. ↑ Pliny : Naturalis historia . Book XXVII, § 4–5 (Chapter II) (digitized Latin) ; ( Digitized edition Külb 1840-1864 German)
  6. ^ Otto Brunfels : Contrafayt Kreüterbůch . Strasbourg 1532, foreword, chapter 19 (digitized version) - Henry E. Sigerist : Studies and texts on early medieval recipe literature. Barth, Leipzig 1923, foreword, SV - Charles Singer : The herbal in antiquity . In: The journal of hellenistic studies. Volume 47 (1927), pp. 1-52. - Brigitte Hoppe: Hieronymus Bock's book of herbs. Scientific historical investigation. With a list of all plants in the work, the literary sources of the medicinal indications and the uses of the plants. Hiersemann, Stuttgart 1969 - Gundolf Keil : Phytotherapy and medical history . In: Zeitschrift für Phytotherapie, Volume 6 (1985), pp 172-178 et al
  7. ↑ Julius Berendes : Des Pedanius Dioskurides medicament theory in 5 books. Enke, Stuttgart 1902. Book IV, Chapter 77: akoniton; Chapter 78: other aconiton. (Pp. 411-413). (Digitized version)
  8. ^ Galen : De simplicium medicamentorum temperamentis ac facultatibus , lib VI, Cap. I / 19-20 (after Kühn 1826, vol. XI, p. 820). (Digitized version)
  9. ↑ Julius Berendes: Des Pedanios Dioskurides from Anazarbos medicament theory. Stuttgart 1902, p. 16: "1 drachma = approx. 3–4 g."
  10. ^ Avicenna : Canon . Book II, (Edition Andrea Alpago, Basel 1556, Book II, Cap. 499, p. 274) (digitized version)
  11. ^ Franz Pfeiffer (Ed.): Konrad von Megenberg. The book of nature . Stuttgart 1861, p. 411. ( digitized version )
  12. ↑ Otto Brunfels : Herbal Book, German, 1532 , p. 329. (digitized version )
  13. ↑ Hieronymus Bock : Herbal Book 1539 , Part I, Chapter 82 (digitized version)
  14. ^ Leonhart Fuchs : De historia stirpium . Basel 1542 (Lyon edition 1549), Chapter 30 (digitized version) - Herb book 1543. Chapter 30. (Digitized version)
  15. ↑ Georg Handsch (transl.): Pietro Andrea Mattioli : New Kreütterbuch… Prague 1563, sheet 468v – 473v (digitized version )
  16. ↑ Michael Stolberg : Deadly human experiments in the 16th century. In: Deutsches Aerzteblatt , vol. 111, issue 47, November 21, 2014. (digitized version )
  17. ↑ Anton von Störck : Treatise in which it is shown that the thorn apple, the rabid and the iron hat, can not only be given to people inwardly with certainty, but are also very healing and fruitful remedies in many diseases. German edition, Augsburg 1763. pp. 49–82. (Digitized version)
  18. ^ Samuel Hahnemann (translator): William Cullen 's treatise on the materia medica. Schwickert, Leipzig 1790, Volume II, p. 320. (digitized version)
  19. ↑ B. Zumstein: Stoerck and his therapeutic attempts. Zurich Medical History Treatises, NR 54 (1968)
  20. ↑ Erwin H. Ackerknecht : The therapeutic experience and its gradual objectification. In: Gesnerus, 2. Jg. (1969), pp. 26–35, here: pp. 31–32 (digitized version)
  21. ↑ Philipp Lorenz Geiger : About the plant, which is to be collected as the real blue monkshood in pharmacies . In: Magazine for Pharmacy and the related sciences. By Ph. L. Geiger . Volume 23 (1828), pp. 73-79 (digitized version )
  22. ↑ About Aconitum vulgare Dec. and Aconitum Stoerckeanum Reichb . By Moritz de Berghes, candidate for pharmacy in Bonn. In: Rudolph Brandes and Philipp Lorenz Geiger (eds.). Annals of Pharmacy . Volume I. (1832), pp. 120–125 (digitized version )
  23. ↑ Continued experiments on the various blue-blooming aconites. By Geiger and Ludwig Hesse . In: Rudolph Brandes and Ph. Lorenz Geiger (eds.). Annals of Pharmacy . Volume IV. (1832), pp. 66–74 (digitized version )
  24. ↑ About some new toxic organic alkalis . By Ph. L. Geiger. In: Rudolph Brandes and Ph. Lorenz Geiger (eds.). Annals of Pharmacy . Volume VII. (1833), pp. 276-280 (digitized version )
  25. ↑ August Husemann and Theodor Husemann : The plant substances in chemical, physiological, pharmacological and toxicological terms. For doctors, pharmacists, chemists and pharmacologists. Springer, Berlin 1871, pp. 210-232: Aconitin (digitized) ; Pp. 232-233: Acolyctin and Lycoctonin (digitized version ) ; P. 792–794: Aconitic acid (digital copy )
  26. ^ Robert Bentley and Henry Trimen : Medicinal plants. J. & A. Churchill, London 1880, Volume 1 (No 006) (digitized version)
  27. ^ Theodor Husemann (1833-1901): Handbook of the entire drug theory. 2nd edition, Volume II, Springer, Berlin 1883. pp. 1135–1142. (Digitized version)
  28. ^ Arnold Leonhard Cloetta : A. Cloetta's textbook on drug theory and drug prescription theory. 10th edition, Tübingen 1901, p. 79. (digitized version)