DATELINE — SPICE TIMETABLE (Medicine)

• ~60,000,000 b.p. Flowering plants, the subject of this topic, emerge and begin to evolve phytochemicals defensive against phytovores.
• ~6,000,000 b.p. Primates evolve into man who begins co-evolving with the flowering plants, some edible, some medicinal, some poisonous.
• ~50,000 b.p. Man learns of the culinary attributes of leaves wrapped around meat for cooking (McCormick, 1981).
• ~18,000 b.p. Man crosses the Bering Bridge, opening up the New World for the discovery of the New World spices, Capsicum, Cunila, Osmorrhiza, Peumus, Pimenta, Sassafras, Vanilla.
• ~12,000 b.p. Boldo Man in Monte Verde Chile, with boldo and a couple dozen medicinal plants.
• ~7000 b.p. Hot peppers cultivated in South America (Wood, 1993).
• ~6000 b.p. Sumerians use licorice and opium; Fenugreek identified in Iraq.
• ~5000 b.p. Charak, the father of Ayurvedic medicine, claimed that garlic “maintains the fluidity of blood and strengthens the heart” (Rahman, 2001). Not known in the wild, it was cultivated in the Middle East at least 5000 years ago.
• ~5000 b.p. Ancient historians equate the ownership of ginger or its trade routes with prosperity (Schulick, 1996).
• ~4700 b.p. Cassia recorded in China (Bown, 2001).
• ~4500 b.p. Andean Indians already using coca, the source of cocaine.
• ~4000 b.p. Shen Nong first Ben Cao or native herbal with 365 drugs, Cassia, ephedra, ginseng, rhubarb. Garlic already in use in China (consumed with raw meat), introduced into Japan (Rivlin, 2001).
• ~3900 b.p. Sesame oil expressed in Urartu (now Armenia) (TAD).
• ~3730 b.p. Joseph sold to Ishmaelites with camels taking spices, balm, and myrrh to
Egypt (Genesis 37) (pEA).
• ~3600 b.p. Cassia recorded in Egypt.
• ~3500 b.p. Art at Queen Hatshepsut’s temple at Luxor showed potted frankincense, possibly used in rejuvenating face masks (Bown, 2001).
• ~3500 b.p. King Tut’s Tomb contained 6 cloves garlic (Fulder dates it ~ 4000 B.C.; Rivlin
1500).
• 3500 B.p. papyrus Ebers 800 prescriptions; 700 mostly plant drugs compounded sometimes with beer, honey, milk, or wine. The Codex Ebers, ca. 1500 B.C., is one of the earliest sources indicating prescription of garlic to treat cancerous growths. The Codex also suggests garlic, as I do today, for circulatory ailments, general malaise, and infestations with insects and parasites (Rivlin, 2110). Fenugreek suggested to induce childbirth (Bown, 2001). Probably the first mention of sesame (Bown, 2001).
• ~3400 B.p. poppy, its seeds or its opium, apparently in culinary and/or medicinal use by Cretans, Egyptians, and Sumerians.
• ~3000 b.p. Solomon immortalizes many Biblical spices in his song of Solomon (camphire, cinnamon, frankincense, myrrh, pomegranate, saffron, spikenard). The Queen of Sheba visits, bringing as gifts of state “camels that bear spices” (Chronicle 9) (pEA).
• ~2775 b.p. Olympic Games founded, champions crowned with laurel (=bayleaf).
• ~2700 b.p. Babylonians familiar with cardamom, coriander, garlic, saffron, thyme, and turmeric.
• ~2650 b.p. Assyrians familiar with anise, cardamom, coriander, cumin, dill, garlic, myrrh, poppy, saffron, sesame, thyme, and turmeric.
• ~2500 b.p. Chinese courtiers were said to hold a clove in their mouth when addressing an emperor.
• ~2500 b.p. Sasruta writings in India mention cardamom, cinnamon, pepper, and turmeric.
• ~2400 b.p. Hippocrates—”First, do no harm. Second, let food be your farmacy.” Used garlic for pulmonary complaints, abdominal and uterine growths (read cancer), and as a cleansing agent and purgative. Also familiar with cinnamon, coriander, marjoram, mint, saffron, and thyme.
• ~2350 b.p. Aristotle catalogued medicinal properties of many herbs and spices.
• ~2335 b.p. Alexander the Great’s army plunders Gaza, sending its frankincense to Greece.
• ~2300 b.p. Theophrastus, “Father of Botany,” described medicinal attributes of many spices, including black pepper and long pepper. He noted that hot sunny regions produced the most aromatic spices. Licorice suggested for asthma, bronchoses, cough, pulmonoses (FAY).
• ~2165 b.p. Death of Chinese Princess Tai, buried with cinnamon, galangal, ginger, and pepper.
• ~2050 b.p. Mithridates, “The Royal Toxicologist,” rhizomatists offering ginger.
• ~2050 b.p. First mustard seed brought to England by the Romans (McCormick, 1981).
• ~2050 b.p. Caius Plinus Secundus (a.d. 23-79), “Pliny the Elder,” Natural History—Medical Bot, listed 23 uses for garlic against infections and toxins (anticipating p450-2E1 activities on toxins (Rivlin, 2001) and maybe even antianthrax (JAD). Pliny considered licorice native to Sicily).
• Birth of Jesus. Wise men bring Frankincense and Myrrh.
• Crucifixion. Christ given “gall” on the cross, perhaps opium.
• Many herbs and spices mentioned in the Bible (almond, anise, bay, black cumin, caper, carob, cassia, cinnamon, coriander, cumin, dill, fenugreek, frankincense, galbanum, garlic, juniper, leek, marjoram or Biblical hyssop, mint, mustard, myrrh, myrtle, onion, poppy, rue, saffron, sage, spikenard, storax, possibly turmeric and wormwood).
• Cloves reach China, India, Rome as spice (Bown, 2001).
• ~47 a.d. Pedanios Dioscorides (first century a.d.) “Materia Medica,” followed the Roman armies. Recommended garlic to clean the arteries, for GI disorders, for joint disease and seizures (Rivlin, 2001). Boiled garlic and oregano for bedbugs and lice (Fulder, 1997). Ginger suggested as aphrodisiac (Schulick, 1996). Sesame seed sprinkled on bread (Bown, 2001).
• ~130-200 a.d. Galen medicinal extracts of galenicals containing dozens of ingredients (opium).
• ~200 a.d. Ginger taxed in Rome, first listed as medicinal in China (Bown, 2001).
• ~300 a.d. Bower Manuscript. Garlic for debility, dyspepsia, fatigue, and infections.
• ~410 a.d. Alaris, the Visigoth, subjugates Rome and demands 3,000 lb peppercorns as tribute (McCormick, 1981).
• ~570 a.d. Birth of Mohammad.
• ~595 a.d. Mohammad marries Khadija, and they run a Meccan shop trading in oriental spices, frankincense and myrrh. Muslims consolidate monopoly on spice trade, which lasts for centuries. The Qu’ran hints that ginger (not identified in the Bible) is a heavenly and spiritual beverage (Schulick, 1996).
• ~600 a.d. Clove and nutmeg listed as medicinal herb in China (Bown, 2001).
• ~720 a.d. Cardamon mentioned in China as medicine (Bown, 2001).
• Late Eighth Century. First drug stores in Bagdad; Muslims and Arabs rescued many of the topics from Christian/Roman wars; the first apothecary camphor, cloves, cubebs, nutmeg, tamarind.
• ~980-1037 a.d. Avicennia (“Ibn Sina”), Arabic scholar, Persian physician, poet, writer Unani or Greek Canon Of Medicine. 200 Publications.
• ~1098-1179 a.d. Hildegard of Bingen, Benedictine nun in Rhineland. She believed that raw garlic was more effective than cooked. I still believe this. She predicts use of celery in “gicht.” She also covered cinnamon, cloves, cubeb (a type of pepper), fenugreek, galangal, ginger, licorice, nutmeg, pepper, zedoary, etc., plus dozens of culinary herbs.
• ~1280 a.d. Marco Polo observed ginger cultivated in China and India.
• ~1305 a.d. Edward I levies a tax on licorice to help pay for the London Bridge (FAY).
• ~1350 a.d. Black Death kills ~25 million Europeans (PEA). Spices widely tried but unsuccessfully, with the possible exception of garlic.
• ~1368-1654 a.d. Bastard cardamom first mentioned as Chinese medicine. Ming Dynasty (Bown, 2001).
• ~1447 a.d. English outlaw adulteration of spices (McCormick, 1981).
• ~1475 a.d. Bjornnson’s Icelandic manuscript, before the invention of gin, prescribes juniper-spiced wine for cold and headache (CEB).
• ~1492 a.d. Columbus seeks a short route to the orient and black Indians and black pepper but instead finds red Indians and red pepper. Folklore says he was guided to Terra Firma by the aroma of sassafras.
• ~1500 (1493-1541) a.d. Paracelsus, the first reductionist (chemicals are responsible for medicinal activities of herb) disliked the vogue fascination with exotic imported herbs.
• ~1502 a.d. Ferdinand and Isabella tell Columbus re his fourth voyages, “All.. .spices and other products must be delivered to Francisco de porras” (pEA).
• ~1512 a.d. Portuguese take Moluccas, consolidating monopoly on nutmeg (Bown, 2001).
• ~1513 a.d. Oviedo reaches Darien Panama, first to document capsicum peppers in Tierra Firme (Andrews, 1995).
• ~1536 a.d. Portuguese invade Ceylon to cement monopoly on cinnamon.
• ~1560 a.d. Spaniards employ sassafras for venereal disease (Bown, 2001).
• ~1567 a.d. Nutmeg poisoning reported in British pregnant lady who ingested 10-12 fruits and became deliriously inebriated (Bown, 2001).
• ~1569 a.d. Hungarians change name of red pepper to paprika (Andrews, 1995).
• ~1575 a.d. Monardes Seville says of sassafras, “It is almost incredible, for with the naughtie meates and drinkying of the rawe waters, and slepying in the dewes, the most parts of them came to fall into continual agues” (Erichsen-Brown, 1989).
• ~1597 a.d. John Gerard (1546-1607) writes his herbal; London ~1300 medicinal species; ginger noted to “provoke venerie” (Schulick, 1996; Griggs, 1998); “horseradish…com-monly used among the Germans for sauce to eate fish” (Bown, 2001).
• ~1600 a.d. “And had I but one penny in the world, thou shouldst have it to buy gingerbread.” Shakespeare; Love’s Labors Lost (Schulick, 1996).
• ~1600 a.d. Henry IV of France, who regularly chewed garlic, has “breath that would fell an ox at twenty paces” (Fulder, 1997).
• ~1600 a.d. George II of England bans melegueta pepper as injurious to the health (Bown,
2001).
• ~1630 a.d. Jesuits recognize the febrifugal capacity of cinchona, long before the discovery of gin and tonic (Bown, 2001).
• ~1653 a.d. Nicholas Culpepper’s The English Physician seemed to speak more of herbs than spices, calling Capsicum bird pepper, cayenne pepper, and guinea pepper.
• ~1787 a.d. Annatto introduced for cultivation in India (Bown, 2001).
• ~1800-1850 a.d. Shaker era in America. Physics Garden at New Lebanon with hore-hound, marjoram, poppy, sage, and savory.
• ~1803 a.d. Serturner isolates and identifies morphine from poppy.
• ~1820 a.d. Wintergreen leaves listed in U.S. Pharmocopoeia (until 1894) (Bown, 2001).
• ~1820 a.d. Caventou and Pelletier separated quinine and cinchonine from Peru Bark.
• ~1835 a.d. Texans develop chili powder combining various ground peppers (McCormick, 1981). Salicylic acid synthesized for the first time. (Chile contains salicylic acid.)
• ~1869 a.d. Boldo “first investigated by a French physician” (Bown, 2001).
• ~1884 a.d. Freud and then Koller discover anesthetic activity of cocaine.
• ~1915 a.d. 25,000 physicians, the Eclectics, embrace ginger and other natural medicines
(Schulick, 1996).
I could have started my spice story ca. 2300 b.p., when Theophrastus, Father of Botany, was describing the medicinal attributes of many of our spices. He noted that hot, sunny regions produced the most aromatic of spices. Even today, I often find that the same species, grown in a dry tough environment, has more of the aromatic phytochemicals than the same species grown in a shadier, more humid environment. A pampered herb or spice may have more primary metabolites and proportionately fewer secondary metabolites. Translation: the pampered organic herb or spice may be the better food plant, but the tough wiry unpampered herb or spice may be the better medicinal. I could start my intro with Dioscorides, leading Greek physician of the first century a.d., whose works on botany were to be the standards until the days of Columbus. Some would suggest I should start with the birth of Jesus, others with the birth of Mohammad (A.D. 570). Bethlehem and Mecca are both suffering from proximity to the ravishes of war today. And both have experienced millennia of spice caravans and spice trading.
At the birth of Christ, wise men brought oriental spices, frankincense and myrrh. Most of the Old World spices had already traveled far and wide as spices, if not as plants. The temperate spices were widely distributed as plants, but the tropical tree spices still were dear and shrouded in mystery. Among spices mentioned in my Medicinal Plants of the Bible (1983; 1999) are almond, anise, bay, black cumin, caper, carob, cassia, cinnamon, coriander, cumin, dill, fenugreek, frankincense, galbanum, garlic, juniper, leek, marjoram or Biblical hyssop, mint, mustard, myrrh, myrtle, onion, poppy, rue, saffron, sage, spikenard, storax, and wormwood. If your ancestors came from that part of the world, your genes have probably known the phytochemical contents of many of these Biblical herbs and spices for more than two millennia. Your genes have not yet known synthetic medicines for two centuries.
The fall of the Roman Empire was clear when Alexandria was occupied by the Arabs in a.d. 641. But one very important man, born a.d. 570, probably affected early spice trade even more than Columbus, certainly long before Columbus. As a young man, this important figure worked with Meccan merchants involved with spices in Arabia and Syria. Then he “graduated” to the role of camel driver and caravan leader for the widow Khadija, 15 years his senior. After their marriage in 595, he served as a partner in a Meccan shop trading in oriental spices, frankincense, and myrrh.
So, oriental spices were important to Mohammad, founder of one great religion, as they were to Jesus, namesake of another great religion. Yet I don’t find the spices, not even Arabian frankincense and myrrh, listed in the very useful website hosting the Hadith. I do find some mention of black cumin, hyssop, leek, mustard, and onion, but no cinnamon, cassia, caraway, and coriander. Nothing seems to receive higher praise than the black cumin, Nigella sativa (from the database): “I heard Allah’s Apostle saying, ‘There is healing in black cumin for all diseases except death’.”
I do not have a searchable Qu’ran on my computer like my searchable Bible. Unlike the Bible, the Qu’ran was compiled over a very short period of time and is entirely orientated toward revelation and the word of Allah. The Qu’ran does mention the benefits of consuming certain foods such as honey and the abstinence of alcohol, but it contains very little specific information on health and disease. Prophetic medicine was mostly prayer. The Hadith, however, details guidelines on diet and the treatment of simple ailments. One can search MSA-USC Hadith Database: http://www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/reference/searchhadith.html
By 750, the Mohammedan religion stretched 7,000 miles from the borders of China to Spain. And Arab traders had a monopoly on oriental spices and gold alike, just as they nearly attained monopolies, collaborating with other OPEC nations, on petroleum in more recent decades. The Port City of Basra, about which I heard so much in the Persian Gulf Wars of the 1980s and 1990s, was founded in the year 635 where the Euphrates and Tigris meet. The great physician Rhazes (850-925) became chief of the great hospital in Bagdad, and his works, like those of Avicennia (ca. 1000), influenced European medicine heavily. By 1096, the first of the Crusades began nibbling at the Muslim empire.
The USDA once defined spices as parts of plants (dried seeds, buds, fruit or flower parts, bark or roots) usually of tropical origin. They contrasted herbs as leafy parts of temperate species. King Charlemagne once defined an herb and/or spice as “the friend of the physician and the pride of cooks.”
That was back in the days when herbs and spices were major medicinals and friend of the physician. Today, herbs and spices may be viewed with less than disdain by the physician and the pharmaceutical industry, as they are more and more proving to prevent disease as well as cure it. From Allium for preventing cancer, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and maybe even the common cold and the more-and-more-common yeast; through Glycyrrhiza for preventing caries, diabetes, maybe even ulcers; to Zingiber for preventing seasickness and ulcers and alleviating morning sickness, there is increased interest in preventive medicine and designer foods to prevent and/or alleviate curable and incurable ailments. All spices have folk medicinal reputations, and extracts of most species have exciting biological activities. All spices contain important curative phytochemicals.
Could a spice rack prove to be a medicine chest? I discourage that. No one should self-diagnose and self-medicate. They should, however, seek out for their physicians those holistic physicians who are intelligent enough to consider dietary and lifestyle modifications to prevent and/or treat disease, before they sucker the patient into the synthetic-pill-a-day-for-life syndrome so pleasing to the pharmaceutical firms and pharmacophilic allopaths.

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