Like water and food, medicine and treatment are a primordial human need, and ancient cultures laid the foundations for the development of pharmacy as early as 5,000 years ago.
Ancient cultures considered treatment and producing medicines a divine work, so the Chinese emperors themselves were among the first healers. The foundations of the development of pharmacy in China can be seen as early as 3,000 BC.
‘Emperor Shen-Nung is considered the creator of ancient Chinese pharmacy, whose work 'The Book of Roots and Medicinal Herbs' contains detailed descriptions of as many as 360 drugs. This ruler was known by the nickname ‘ox heart’ because he tested medicines on himself, and only then put them to wider use. These are just some of the herbal drugs that China gave to humanity: rheum, camphor, tea, ginseng, pomegranate peel’, starts her story Jelena Manojlović, specialist in pharmacy and curator of the History of Pharmacy Museum at the Faculty of Pharmacy in Belgrade.
Chinese pharmacotherapy is authentic and original with impressive tradition
‘Even back then, the Chinese knew about the dosage and forms of medicines. They made: ointments, powders, pills, medicinal wines, juices, decoctions and infusions. They were among the first to know extraction methods. It is important to mention opium, which was used as an antidysenteric and analgesic. Even today, China is one of the largest producers of opium poppy for the needs of the pharmaceutical industry, and many medicines and the principles of ancient Chinese medico-pharmacy are still applied today all over the world. They are a combination of traditional and modern medicine and pharmacy’, says our interlocutor.
The word pharmacy originated in Mesopotamia
We find records of disease symptoms, recipes and instructions for making medicines on clay tablets from Mesopotamia (the area of present-day Iraq), 2,600 years before Christ.
‘The very word pharmacy appeared first in Mesopotamia to denote separate dedicated rooms where medicines were made. There were also special streets in Babylon with many pharmacies, which made it possible for the physicians-apothecaries of that time, as the practitioners who dealt with treatment were called, to consult with each other. Medicine and pharmacy were then a single unit’, explains Jelena Manojlović and adds that India certainly made a big contribution to the development of the global pharmacy.
‘India in its 'Vedic' period, around 2,000 years BC, made a strong contribution to the development of medicine and pharmacy. Brahmin and afterwards Buddhist priests were specially educated to make medicines and heal. Rigveda is the oldest holy book that describes medicines and medicinal preparations, and according to the World Health Organization, Ayurveda is the oldest medical system in the world that is practiced continuously’, adds our interlocutor.
The ancient Greeks shaped the art of healing in Western civilization
Ancient Greece was the first culture in Europe that freed medicine and pharmacy from superstition, mysticism, and religious dogmatism and enabled the development of scientific thought.
‘The famous Hippocrates (460-375 BC) was one of the most outstanding healers of his time. He combined the knowledge acquired in the medical schools of the Mediterranean and those from the Far East. He diagnosed diseases by examining urine (colour, smell, sediment, taste). He applied the allotropic method of treatment, meaning ‘similia similibus curentur’ (similar is treated with a similar one), emphasized the importance of a healthy diet, and considered treatment a sacred duty and advocated that it should be free,’ says our interlocutor.
The Greeks were also the first healers in ancient Rome. Enslaved educated Greeks, were freed by the Romans from slavery on the condition that they transfer knowledge from all sciences, including developing Roman medicine and pharmacy.
‘The physician-apothecary Galen, 129-199 AD was also Greek and the most famous healer in ancient Rome. He began his work as a gladiator healer, where he distinguished himself with extensive knowledge and skills. He had his own pharmacy and held public discussions on health and healing in the streets of Rome. He also established an authentic philosophy according to which the soul is the essence of life and it governs matter, that is, the body that was created by the soul itself. Christianity calls him Divinius Galenus - divine Galen’, says curator Jelena Manojlović.
Beginnings of pharmacy in Serbia
The arrival of the Roman legions at the beginning of the first century on the territory of present-day Serbia, the establishment of the province of Upper Moesia and the declaration of Viminacium as the capital, had great significance for the development of today's Braničevo district and the better quality of life of the indigenous population, who received organized health care and the development of communal hygiene.
‘The previous religious and magical medicine with the use of amulets, sorceries, symbols and incomprehensible formulas, which was present in our region until then, was gradually suppressed by the methods of professional, educated healers. The cult of Aesculapius spread and the affirmation of Greek physicians-apothecaries and surgeons, whose work was based on the scientific tradition. Highly developed scientific medicine and pharmacy in the ancient period in part of the territory of today's Serbia can certainly be seen as the starting point for the development of modern pharmacy in our regions’, concludes curator Jelena Manojlović her instructive story.
