Posted on 09/10/2010 7:30:58 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Pill-popping ancients liked a good dose of vegetables, archaeobotanists have found after analyzing plant DNA in Greek-made pills from a 130 BC shipwreck.
Though archaeologists have known about the ship since the 1980s, this is the first time researchers have had a crack at analyzing the drugs found onboard. Using the GenBank genetic database as their guide, they have found that the pills appear to contain carrot, parsley, radish, alfalfa, chestnut, celery, wild onion, yarrow, oak, and cabbage.
Geneticist Robert Fleischer of the Smithsonian's National Zoological Park says that many of the ingredients match those described in ancient texts, New Scientist reports. Yarrow was meant to slow blood coming from a wound, and carrot-as described by Pedanius Dioscorides, a pharmacologist in Rome-was thought to ward off reptiles and aid in conception.
Fleischer and colleagues presented these first results yesterday at the Fourth International Symposium on Biomolecular Archaeology in Denmark, and Nature's blog The Great Beyond reports that the pills also contained some surprises. For one, researchers found sunflower or helianthus believed to be a New World plant unknown to the Europeans until the 1400s. Now researchers must determine if the ancient Greeks really prescribed sunflower concoctions or if the some modern, ancient drug handlers contaminated the find. They also hope to find "theriaca," a medicine described in ancient texts as containing 80 different plants-a pill to put the modern health drink V8 to shame.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.discovermagazine.com ...
Dang, couldn’t ya get any AMERICAN grown yarrow? ;’)
Carrot Tops real dad was a veggie??
Carrots&Yarrow were upstaged by Hall & Oats
“I still have no clue what Yarrow is, lol.”
I’m just hoping I don’t wake up too hung over tom-yarrow... LOL!!
Are you yarrow-minded?
“Are you yarrow-minded?”
I’m not so yarrow minded that I just heard Hannity blame TARP on Obama. Sorry to change the subject. Yarrow with me? Must have been a slip...
yar
TARP was that idiotic thing that helped turn off the GOP base for the last election.
Them thar RINO’s.
Ok. If this thread hits 50 posts, you know Koran burning is getting old. :o)
The next controversy is a parody rock song called “Burning down the Mosque”
“The next controversy is a parody rock song called ?Burning down the Mosque”
That’s so 80’s....
I think tom-yarrow, some books will be burned, and I hope those people that do get there jollies... We have bigger fish to fry. Like Ahmed-al-Ja-yarrow. He’s a pussy. LOL!!
lol.
Yeah, I was stretching that as far as it will go... ;o)
Yar!
“and carrot-as described by Pedanius Dioscorides, a pharmacologist in Rome-was thought to ward off reptiles”
Solving the mystery of why we never see serpents and carrots together.
Good point. I had been wondering about that just this morning.
Probably the carrots drove the serpents out of Ireland.
I don’t need to keep my eyes on the yarrow. God does that for reasons only SHe knows.
It’s entirely possible that a pill combining yarrow and carrot was designed to enhance erectile function similar to modern day Viagra.
“Yarrow was meant to slow blood coming from a wound, and carrot-as described by Pedanius Dioscorides, a pharmacologist in Rome-was thought to ward off reptiles and aid in conception.”
“Slowing blood” might concentrate blood in the affected organ and the objective of aiding in conception can easily be connected to erectile properties.
And we know that ancient peoples often made a connection between the visual properties of a plant or animal and a therapeutical use for Man.
BEHOLD THE CARROT!
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