[MR] History Blog: Modern Study of Medieval Cure-all

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends,

Today the History Blog discusses a modern analysis of the popular
middle-ages cure-all theriac.

This potion dates from Roman times, and was in use into the 19th century.
Theriac was thought to be protection against the plague and all sorts of
other pandemics, maladies, and even poisons. The potion contained many
costly and hard-to-find ingredients, some of which were in fact highly
toxic, though not in the concentrations included in the formula. Among
these baddies were sea squill and sea onion. Theriac was considered so
valuable that many governments strictly regulated and licensed its
manufacture.

Researchers in Poland recreated the potion from a surviving 1630 recipe.
They discovered that some ingredients do indeed have medicinal value, but
their concentrations (along with those that are considered toxic) were so
low that theriac was practically useless. They did conclude that it might
have had a placebo effect, but tell that to a plague bacillus or a covid
virus. The results of the study were published in THE JOURNAL OF
ETHNOPHARMACOLOGY.

The story is summarized at http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/63238 .

Yours Aye,


Lord Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆