2023-11-05 12:17:46
By Soline Roy
Published 1 minute ago, Updated 1 minute ago
A theriac amphora dating from 1641 and found in Italy. SSPL/UIG / Bridgeman Images
HEALTH STORIES – Straight from Mithridates, this paste composed of more than 70 substances, to be swallowed or applied to wounds, reigned over the pharmacopoeia until the beginning of the 20th century.
Cut out a viper in sections, cook them, dehydrate and shape “trochisques”, kinds of pastilles that you will dry in the sun. Do the same with silla (a bulb plant), and hedichron (mixture of around twenty ingredients). Season your trochisques with various roots, plants, fruits, peppers, spices, salts, gums and substances such as castoreum (from a beaver gland), Judaean bitumen or vitriol, without forgetting a good dose of opium.
Mix the powder obtained with turpentine, wine and honey. Then let it rest in the sun, and leave to ferment for several months, mixing regularly. You are now in possession of the precious theriac, a remedy that has reigned over human medicine for more than 2000 years.
You will store it in magnificent earthenware or porcelain pots, and wait several months, even years, before using it: its effectiveness is supposed to be maximum after around thirty years. Honey makes an excellent…
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