Snipped from New Scientist.

Some of the more recent articles on Blog4Brains have been about ancient remedies or alternative medicine, so I thought this fascinating article about how the Egyptians may have beaten the Greeks to discovering the first “medicine”, would help further the discussion.

Since this is a membership only article, I will give you the short of the long. Asru, an ancient mummy, has been intriguing scientists for quite some time. It has been discovered that she lived roughly about 60 years (pretty old for thousands of years ago), but she also suffered from many ailments. She had everything from parasites to periodontal disease, but this sparked the scientists wonder what the Egyptians did to help with infection, pain and other conditions.

Unfortunately, the hard part is deciphering the age-old, nearly completely forgotten language. Going through all the old texts is a near impossibility, so a researcher named Jackie Campbell, found another way to dig for the truth …

“I’m not a linguistics expert so I used science to authenticate the prescriptions,” she says. With most drugs extracted from plants, her first check was whether a plant named in a prescription grew or was traded in Egypt at the time the papyri were written. If it wasn’t, she could rule it out. Fortunately, the flora of ancient Egypt is well known. Thousands of botanical specimens collected from archaeological sites are held in museums, many of them accurately dated, and some plants are illustrated in wall paintings and sculptures. Better still is the evidence from pollen grains incorporated in mud bricks or buried deep in the soil. Geological core samples have enabled archaeobotanists to reconstruct Egypt’s past flora in enough detail to say what was indigenous or traded.

Campbell’s second approach was pharmacological: could the named ingredient have worked the way a prescription indicated? Normally, this would be the province of a forensic chemist, who would take a sample, analyse its constituents and check for biological activity. Sadly, archaeologists have yet to find any pots of ointment or neatly moulded suppositories. “But we had something better,” she says. “Recipes.” …

Here is what she discovered:

So what did Egyptian doctors prescribe? They were especially keen on laxatives, and dispensed irritants such as castor oil or colocynth, lubricants including balanites (extracted from the kernel of the desert date), or simply recommended bulk fibre, such as figs or bran. For indigestion, they prescribed an antacid of powdered limestone (calcium carbonate) where we take magnesium carbonate. For diarrhoea, doctors dispensed something to absorb water and toxins from the gut, such as kaolin or powdered carob, or a plant containing hyoscine, an alkaloid that relaxes smooth muscle and reduces gut movement. For flatulence and intestinal cramps, patients could rely on cumin and coriander - both effective antispasmodics. The discomfort of piles was eased with a suppository laced with hemp.

The ancient Egyptians had effective remedies for waterborne parasites too. The most common was extract of pomegranate, which contains pelletierine, a powerful antihelminthic used until 50 years ago to get rid of tapeworms. Antimony was effective against flukes, and balanites oil, although given to soothe burning in the bladder symptomatic of schistosomiasis, would also have killed the worms that caused it.

Like Asru the chantress, many people suffered from musculoskeletal disorders. The treatments were also many and varied. A patient might be instructed to rub liniment into aching joints, or bandage a warming poultice over the painful area. Extracts of mustard, juniper and frankincense or turpentine stimulated blood flow, providing warmth and enhancing the immune response.

Treatments for wounds were clearly effective. Mummy studies have revealed evidence of potentially fatal injuries that had healed. Egyptian physicians treated wounds with resins and metals, both of which have antimicrobial properties, and with honey - which does not comply with modern pharmaceutical standards but nevertheless works and is increasingly used to treat ulcers and burns when antibiotics fail. By extracting water from the wound by osmosis, it makes conditions too dry for the growth of bacteria.