Mithridatic

Mithridatikum is one of the oldest used drugs preparations as panacea or antidote ( "antidote" antidote ). The name refers to the Pontic king Mithridates VI. Eupator , who experimented with poisons and antidotes from an early age. With the help of his personal physician , he allegedly expanded an already existing herbal mixture of anise , fennel seeds and caraway (the recipe was carved into the wall of the Asklepieion of Kos ) to 54 ingredients, including "magical" ingredients such as duck blood and toad meat, and used it as a preventative against poison attacks. It was named after him antidotum Mithridatis ('antidote of Mithridates') and (antidotum) Mithridatium or Mithridatikum or (Unguentum) Mithridaticum .

The composition was later expanded to include viper meat as an additional ingredient. The recipe, which was expanded by about ten ingredients by Nero's personal physician Andromachus (with about 60 to 80 and more instead of about 35 to 60 ingredients) was given the name Theriac .

Alternative names

Mithridat (icum), Mithridat, Electuarium Mithridatis, older spellings Metridat and Medridatum

See also

• Mithridation
• Orvietan

literature

• Gilbert Watson : Theriac and Mithridatium: A study in therapeutics , London 1966 (= Publications of the Wellcome Historical medical library, New Series, 9)
• Erhardt Kahle : The Mithridatic in Arabic Medical Literature. In: “gelêrter der arzeniê, ouch apotêker”. Contributions to the history of science. Festschrift for the 70th birthday of Willem F. Daems. Edited by Gundolf Keil, Horst Wellm Verlag, Pattensen / Hanover 1982 (= Würzburg medical-historical research. Volume 24), ISBN 3-921456-35-5 , pp. 371–385.
• Gundolf Keil : Mithridaticum (Mithridat [i] um). In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil, Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 1000.
• Philipp H. Külb : Cajus Plinius Secundus natural history . Volume 25, Stuttgart 1840-1877. Search term Mithridates. Retrieved March 20, 2019 . 
• Theodor Mommsen : Roman history. Vol. 2: From the battle of Pydna to Sulla's death. Berlin 1921, p. 262ff. Retrieved March 18, 2019 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Roman history. Vol. 2: From the battle of Pydna to Sulla's death. Theodor Mommsen, Berlin 1921, p. 267.
2. ^ Karl Ernst Georges: Comprehensive Latin-German concise dictionary , 7th ed. Leipzig 1879/80, II, p. 842.
3. ^ Bernhard D. Haage: A new text testimony to the plague poem of Hans Andree. In: Specialized prose research - Crossing borders. Volume 8/9, 2012/2013, pp. 267–282, here: p. 279.
4. ^ Gundolf Keil: Mithridaticum. 2005, p. 1000.
5. ↑ Moriz Bernstein: Considerations on the relationship between religion and medicine (communicated aphoristically). In: German archive for the history of medicine and medical geography. Volume 4, 1881; New printing Hildesheim / New York 1971, pp. 107-120, 201-208 and 297-310; here: p. 303.
6. ^ Gerhard Eis : Medical prose of the late Middle Ages and the early modern times. Amsterdam 1982 (= Amsterdam Publications on Language and Literature , 48), p. 120 f.
7. ↑ See Economic Encyclopedia , Lemma Metridat.