Astragalus sarcocolla
Astragalus sarcocolla | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Fabales |
Family: | Fabaceae |
Subfamily: | Faboideae |
Genus: | Astragalus |
Species: | A. sarcocolla
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Binomial name | |
Astragalus sarcocolla Dymock
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Astragalus sarcocolla, also known as Persian gum,
Name
Sarcocolla is the
Plant
Formerly, the genus
History
Pliny reports the use of sarcocolla in creating paints and as a medicine.[5][6]
The 8th century philosopher Al-Kindi used sarcocolla as a component of many recipes in his medical formulary Akrabadhin, among others for leprosy.[4]
The most detailed description is given by the 13th century botanist and pharmacologist Ibn al-Baytar on the basis of Greek and Arabic sources as well as his own observations. The resin consumes the festering flesh of putrescent abscesses, assists the ripening of tumours, carries away mucus and yellow gall, and is a remedy for inflammations of the eye, for agglutinating eyelids and for excessive secretion of the eye. Taken internally, the resin is a strong purgative, but causes also the hair to fall out. The best sarcocolla consists of crushed, white seeds, mixed with walnut oil. Measured out in different ways, it can be mingled with other drugs (sagapenum, myrobalanum, aloes, bdellium, etc.). When taken neat, the resin can be lethal; therefore, the dose should not be more than 2¼ dirhams. Ibn al-Baytar, however, maintains that he saw in Egypt women partaking, immediately after a bath, of up to 4 ounces of anzarūt, together with the pulp of the yellow melon, hoping to increase thus their corpulence.[4]
According to the c. 13th-century
The 16th-century surgeon Brunus of Calabria recommended a plaster for skull fractures consisting of sarcocolla, bitter vetch meal, dragon's blood, and myrrh.[10]
See also
- Chrysocolla ("gold solder")
- Sarcocele
References
Citations
- ^ a b Latham (1972), p. 39.
- Dioscorides (1902), "Sarkokolla", in Julius Berendes (ed.), De Materia Medica (PDF), PharmaWiki.ch, p. 193, archived from the original(PDF) on 2015-09-24, retrieved 2014-10-10
- ^ "Astragalus sarcocolla". ILDIS (International Legume Database and Information Service). Retrieved 2020-04-07.
- ^ The Encyclopaedia of Islam, vol. 12 (supplement) (2nd ed.), Brill, pp. 77b–78a
- ^ Pliny, Nat. Hist., Book XIII, Ch. 67, and Book XXIV, Ch. 128.
- ^ "sarcocolla", Oxford Latin Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 1968, p. 1691
- De Materia Medica, Ch. 3, §89.
- Greek-English Lexicon(8th ed.), Harper & Brothers, p. 1375
- ^ Marcellin Berthelot (1893), La chimie au moyen âge, vol. I, Imprimerie nationale, pp. 116–117
- Kurt Sprengel (1805), Geschichte der Chirurgie, vol. 1, Kümmel, p. 15
Bibliography
- Latham, J.D. (Spring 1972), "Arabic into Medieval Latin", Journal of Semitic Studies, vol. 17, pp. 30–67, .