History of Medicine

Report on Pedanius Dioscorides

1) When and where did this person live? Give a brief historical context to his/her life and work.

The Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides (40 – 90) was from a small town near Tarsus in what is now south central Turkey. He was employed as a well-traveled military doctor for the Roman Emperor Nero's armies. Greek and Roman influence was prevalent in the world. The Roman armies had conquered vast areas of Europe, the Middle East and Asia. He was the last notable practitioner in a long line of influential Greek physicians. He was a contemporary of the Greek naturalist Pliny, the Spanish agriculturalist Columella and the Apostle Paul.

2) What is this person's major contribution to the development of medicine?

Dioscorides wrote a herbal treatise called "De Materia Medica" around the year 77 that described over 600 plants, 35 animal products, 90 minerals and 1000 medications. He was a careful observer of plants and the illnesses they helped treat. He knew how to identify a wide variety of plants. He was also an expert on the proper collection and storage of herbs for medicinal applications.

3) What was this person's philosophy and/or approach to the practice of medicine?

Dioscorides’ work was mostly practical and empirical in nature. He was concerned with writing careful descriptions and recording efficient remedies. He felt that prior works in his field did not include a wide enough variety of medicinal sources. He also felt that other herbals were not accurate enough in their descriptions of plants and their uses.

4) What was the role of herbs in this person's treatments?

Dioscorides mostly talked about herbal remedies that could be found in the countries where he had traveled. Apparently, he wrote from his own experience with these different herbs. He also described some remedies based on minerals, animal products or exotic spices.

5) Relate a famous experiment or incident associated with this person.

Not much is known about his actual life. It is unknown if his original document was illustrated. The oldest known copies are beautifully illustrated but probably not by Dioscorides himself. I wonder if he would be scandalized or pleased that someone saw fit to illustrate his work.

6) What conflicts and/or opposition did this person face during his life?

De Materia Medica remained an important herbal for many centuries. However, herbalism itself seemed stagnate in the wake of other scientific trends. Potions specially prepared by famous healers were very much in vogue. The fall of Rome certainly changed the cultural milieu in which Dioscorides wrote. New ideologies and practices eventually became more trendy than herbalism. The Medieval church could not promote Dioscorides directly since he was a pagan but the monks preserved his writing because they recognized his valuable contribution to herbalism.

7) What other areas besides medicine did this person's work influence?

Dioscorides continued to emphasize the need to correctly identify plants and thus brought botany close to herbal medicine. He also recognized that plants' curative powers depend on where, when and under what conditions they are harvested. We now know that plants biosynthesize secondary natural products in varying amounts depending on environmental and other factors.

8) From the vantage point of history was this person mostly right in his/her assumptions or mostly wrong?

Some of his cures have ended up on pharmacy shelves as ingredients of modern pharmaceuticals such as aspirin. Many of the plants he described are still used in their herbal forms as he explained them. I don’t think many of his exact remedies are still being prescribed but variations of them are probably still used. Herbal medicine is still alive and doing well centuries (millennia) later. Therefore, in general, Dioscorides’ work has been proven right.

9) What is your overall evaluation of this person?

I wish that there was more information about the man and his times. All in all, Dioscorides is a historical figure to be reckoned with in the fields of Modern Medicine, Botany, Biology, Chemistry, Pharmacognosy and Herbal Medicine. He played a crucial role in making Greek herbal medicine available to the world. He kept herbalism alive and viable during his lifetime and the centuries that followed. Dioscorides also helped pave the way for modern medicine that eventually surpassed herbalism in many ways.

Did OSCO drug get its name from DiOSCOrides? No, I guess not. OSCO stands for Owners Service COmpany – how boring.

10) List your references and resources.

Magic and Medicine of Plants, Reader’s Digest 1986

http://www.treasure-troves.com/bios/Dioscorides.html

http://hortwww-2.ag.ohio-state.edu/hort/history/020.html

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/GreekScience/Students/Robin/preface.html (hardcopy only)

http://www.med.virginia.edu/hs-library/historical/herb/vien1.html