By
Elizabeth H. Elys
Human beings have always had a
desire to eat or drink substances that make them feel relaxed, or euphoric.
Humans have used drugs of one sort or another for thousands of years. Wine was
used at least from the time of the early Egyptian, narcotics from 4000 B.C… and
medicinal use of marijuana has been dated to 2737 B.C. in China.
As time went by "home
remedies" were discovered and used to alleviate aches, pain... Most of
these preparations were herbs, roots, mushrooms... One of the oldest records of
such medicinal recommendations is found in the writing of the Chinese scholar-
emperor SHEN NUNG, who lived in 2735 B.C. He compiled a book about herbs and listed
all the then know medications.
No everyone know, that the tea and coffee
are medicinal. 3000 B.C. approximate date of the supposed origin use of
TEA in China.
350 B.C. Proverbs, 31: 6- 7:
Give strong drink to him who
is perishing, and wine to those in bitter distress, let them drink and forget
their poverty, and remember their misery no more." 450 A. D. "Wine
is at the head of all medicines, where wine is lashing, drugs are necessary
". (Babylonian Talmud)
Opium is widely used in China and Far East. Opium is an extract of the exudate derived from seedpods of the opium poppy, Papaver Somniferous. The poppy plant was cultivated in the ancient civilizations of Persia, Egypt, and Mesopotamia. Neanderthal man may have used the opium poppy over thousands years ago. Less controversially, the first know written reference to the poppy appears in a Sumerian text dated around 4000 B. C.
Opium is widely used in China and Far East. Opium is an extract of the exudate derived from seedpods of the opium poppy, Papaver Somniferous. The poppy plant was cultivated in the ancient civilizations of Persia, Egypt, and Mesopotamia. Neanderthal man may have used the opium poppy over thousands years ago. Less controversially, the first know written reference to the poppy appears in a Sumerian text dated around 4000 B. C.
The flower was known as Hul Gil, Plant Of JOY. Poppy images
appear in Egyptian pictography and Roman sculpture. Representations of the
Roman gods of sleep HYPNOS and SOMNOS show them wearing or carrying poppies.
Egyptian pharaohs were entombed with opium artefacts by their side. Opium could
also be bought on the street markets of Rome. By the 8 century A. D. Opium use had spread to Arabia, India and
China. Classical Greek physicians either ground the whole plant or used
Opium Extract. Physicians commonly believed that the poppy plan was of divine origin,
opium was called Sacred Anchor of Life, Milk of Paradise, the Hand of God, and
Destroyer of Grief.
Opium was probably the World’s first
authentic antidepressant. Unlike other pain- relieving agent such as ethyl
alcohol, or barbiturates, opium does not impair sensory perception, the
intellect or motor co- ordination.
Opium was well known in Chinese
culture. One poem celebrates the opium poppy can be made into a drink
"fit for Buddha ".
Ancient people either ate parts of
the flowers or converted them into liquid to drink.
But by the7th century, the
Turkish and Islamic cultures discovered that the most powerful medicinal
effects could be obtained by igniting and smoking the poppy s congealed juices,
and the habit spread.
Indians ordinarily ate opium,
Chinese smoked it.
Morphine was firs isolated from opium in 1805 by German pharmacist
W. Serturner. He named it MORPHIUM- after Morpheus, the Greek god of
Dreams.
"Among the remedies, which it has pleased the Almighty
God to give to man relieve his suffering, none is as universal and efficacious
as OPIUM. (Thomas Syndenham 1625- 1680)
Next: The
war of drugs, Medicaments of the World…
