Recipe and Formula for Andromachus Theriac

Ingredients and formula for Andromachus theriac – The miraculous recipe Teriaca Andromachus

Were various recipes Teriaca indicated by doctors and apothecaries in different times, but one that was identified to be the true and only Andromachus the Elder is one described by Galen that entrusted to the poet Damocrate the task of transcribing it in verse iambici10 to maintain just the proportion of doses of all drugs simple who entered. In fact in many pharmacopoeias of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the preparation is reported as Teriaca of Damocrate.

Bartholomew Maranta 11, distinguished physician and chemist Neapolitan (1572) in his famous work dedicated to Teriaca and Mitridato “Della Theriaca et Mithridato of” states that many are “those special and doctors who take away the recipe from certain barbarians, below which are the most errors that the words “and adds that he reported the recipe is one that Andromachus the Old administered several times successfully Emperor Nero and Galen handed down with the help of the verses of Damocrate.

The sixty components, omitting wine and honey, which in this case entering the remedy as excipients, are divided into six groups of which: the first consists of an element, the second four, the third eight, the fourth sixteen, the twenty-four fifth and the sixth of eight.

The division into six groups and the number of simple, coming in each group, had a correlation with the weight of each single drug in order to obtain: for four groups, the weight of one pound for each, one half and one sixth of part of the pound which, added to the half pounds and the weight of the wine and honey, that were added, would form another pound. All this to prevent errors and to assure anyone who wanted to prepare the antidote the freedom to compose in quantity multiple or submultiple, compared to the original weight, without the risk of nasty weigh fractions of a pound.

Many of the herbal drugs, used in the preparation, in the Western world were not found either because the habitats of species requiring special growing conditions, and because unknown. This imposed the apothecaries finding substitutes they retain the therapeutic power original.

The practice of substitution was common not only for the preparation of treacle, but in general for all the remedies that were prepared. It was allowed only in cases of absolute impossibility of supply and, absolutely prohibited, if the purpose was only to speculate on costs. Permission led many “spetiali speculators” to mask, behind the inability of supply, substitutions oddest creating drugs that had no therapeutic effect. This prompted the monks Speziari first, and then those trees, to create in the immediate vicinity of their “pharmacy” or in universities, botanical gardens or “gardens of the simple” where they were, with great care, cultivated plant species more difficult to find.

The realization of the vegetable gardens cultivation reduced the spread of counterfeit drugs plants especially those rare or hard to find.

Still Maranta Bartholomew, in chapter VII of his work, denounces the improper use of fake drugs to the point that if Andromachus …..

“Fusse been alive, ricontrandola harebbe not recognized” and “harebbe been able to come to judgment, querelandoli of insults and falsehoods who havesse willed to his opinion.”

Bartolomeo Maranta declares that at the time of Galen was not used any substitute “but all were the real” and thereby encourages “the Special to ‘what for most is committed to the health humana” to provide, before attempting to prepare the Teriaca , of all the “simple” that you can have and not just those that in Italy you can not have, but also those that in Italy you can get, “but you can outside haver best.”

An idea of how common was the replacement of the simple Teriaca is also found nell’antidotario, the “spetiale Parmesan” Jerome Calestani, “Of osservationi” (1584) which shows the attempts of many notables who sought medical and Speziari compose the Teriaca replacing some of the drugs with other available more or less cost. The replacement did not escape even the trocisci viper that had as a substitute for the tormentilla plant into a powder and mixed with pyrethrum and alum was shown to remove the torment of toothache.

Description of some of the components of  Andromachus theriac – Teriaca Andromaco

Before addressing the examination of some of the components Teriaca simple drugs should be remembered that the art of speziere included a knowledge of the timing of collection of herbal drugs that would later form the raw materials for the preparation Galen. So each drug was used only if collected in the growing season as appropriate force and virtue would be bad if the part of the plant to be used had not reached the right stage of ripeness. Roots, leaves, flowers, gums and juices had to be so perfect and cool to be transformed by speziere. Each component was carefully chosen, divided according to “measure and substance” washed with large amounts of spring water, freshly drawn, removing all traces of soil or other impurities then lay in the shade in well-aerated and left to dry for the time appropriate. Soft parts, tires and juices, was filtered to remove the parts fecciose and to make them more consistent in color and flavor.

For the preparation of the Teriaca speziere prepared at different times some of the components such as trocisci of squill, and those ones viperini edicroi in order to have them ready for final operations.

The trocisci served to maintain the properties of the active ingredients so that they were the ones viperini were formed from mixing meat Viper boiled, mixed with bread crumbs, those of scilla drug plant mixed with flour d ‘Orobo16 and those edicroi knead by various drugs. All mixtures were divided into small portions and shaped like spheres, squares or triangles.

The plan of the Scylla was collected in the countryside near the sea between Piperno and Terracina, but also imported from Spain and the part used in the pharmacy was the bulb. For its resemblance to the onion, was also called Onion marina.

Its therapeutic concerned body aches, cough cronicizzata, the vomiting and the overflow of gall. In fact we now know that the active ingredient is a heart tonic and diuretic pharmacological activity similar to that of digital while not giving the side effects of the accumulation.

The trocisci Edicroi were formed from a mixture of many drugs as the amaraco (Origanum Majorana), the aspalato (a scented wood native to the island of Rhodes), the calamus (Acorus verus), the true cost (Mint Roman) the Pontic phu (valerian), the cinnamon (cinnamon), the grass Maro (oregano vulgaris). They did not have a precise therapeutic use but only the function of the spice mixture. Most of the constituents of trocisci edicroi are still used today in herbal and in cooking as flavoring.

Other constituents that have fueled discussions between doctors, spezieri and chemicals, especially with regard to the efficacy, quality and their availability are the Opium, and Opobalsamo.

The Opium used in theriac came mostly from Thebes as the quality was superior to that of opium granlunga turkish. Opium Tebaico differed from the turkish for purity it was “thick, heavy, bitter taste, sleeping pill nell’odorarlo, easy to be solved by the water, smooth white” while the turkish was “harsh, negro, granelloso, meschiato of fronds and other nasties. “The processing of the “gravy poppy” in Egypt was already known many centuries before the birth of Christ and the product of that process was used to soothe the most atrocious evils.

In Turkey, the use and processing of opium began much later and was never perfected over the status of “meconium”, that is, of that juice that was obtained by cooking in water and subsequent concentration of the flower and leaves of the poppy

“cum happen & folia decoquuntur Succus meconium nuncupatur Multum opium ignavior” (Pliny).

The opium in Turkey was in use among the soldiers, “before dangerous operations of war,” he chewed discrete quantities.

In the West the Opium was used in many recipes remedies anodyne and its effects were observed by renowned doctors and spezieri as Paracelsus, Osvaldo Crollio, and others, but the recipe was more successful than the opiate laudanum Nepentes or invented by the Quercetano.Con same name Homer described the remedy that Elena gave Telemachus “to drive away the inner passions and subsequently induce joy and jubilation stillness in the soul.”

Another great mystery of the recipe is the Teriaca opobalsamo (xilobalsamo, carpobalsamo). The opobalsamo or Balsamo Oriental was described as virtuous and sublime ingredient by leading simplistic as Dioscorides, Pliny and Prospero Alpino17. Around this precious element developed fantasies and legends never really define which of balms natural or man really was the opobalsamo.

Many believed that the drug was formed from rubber collection, engraving of the cortex, from the sole of balsam, the other product that was obtained by decoction of the twigs of a plant that is born and grows in Peru (Balsam of Peru).

The opobalsamo used in the recipe has Teriaca eastern origin as claimed by Bartolomeo Giuseppe Donzelli Maranta and that, in their respective works, overdo themselves with very detailed historical information on the origin of the ingredient.

It was originally thought that the plant balm grow only in Judea in the Valley of Jericho where the terrain allowed the species to spread “thriving in forests” and that the Egyptian was instead the result of the transplant of some of these plants to be transferred to Egypt Mark Antony on the orders of Cleopatra. Even in Egypt the plant balm had optimal growth and it produced so much that it was enough to keep perpetually lit a lamp post in front of “Altar of the Conquerors Sagrofanti Princes of the Apostles in Rome and more in the Lateran Baptistery where burned in a brazier of gold by order of the Great Constantine “. Egyptians, Jews and Syrians used the balm to preserve the bodies of the Kings embalming their dead bodies with a mixture of balsam, myrrh, aloe and croco18. In the Roman Catholic Church use the balm was limited to the mix with the “Oglio received in Confirmation.”

Giorgio Melichio states that opobalsamo, being very rare and precious, was often falsified and that already at the time of Andromachus ingredient was hardly findable and was replaced with nutmeg oil that resembled much to smell and taste.

The opobalsamo had remarkable therapeutic properties and was also used as a single simple in many alessifarmaci19.

The xilobalsamo and carpobalsamo were respectively wood dellla plant balm and the fruit of the same plant.

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Recipe and Formula for Theriaca Andromachi

Ingredients for Andromachus theriac:

Trochiscorum scilliticorum
Viperinorum
Hedichroi Radicum gentianae
Acori veri
Meu athamantici
Valerianae
Nardi celtica
Piperis longi Chamaepythios
Opii Coma Hyperici
Iridis florentia Seminum ameos
Thlaspeos
Anisi
Seseleos massiliensis
Cardamomi minoris
Rosarum rubrarum Malabathri
Succi glycyrrhisa Comae polii montani
Seminis buniados (Semi Napo dolce) Chamoedryos
Scordii Carpobalsami
Opobalzami vel succedanei olei nucis moschatae Succi hypocistidis
Acacia vera
Cinnamomi Gummi arabici
Agarici Styracis calamitae
Nardi indicae Terra lemniae
Dictamni cretici Chacitidis veri
Radici pentaphylli
Zingiberis
Costi
Rhapontici Sagapeni
Prassi albi Radicis aristolochia tenuis
Stoechadis arabica Comae centaurii minoris
Schananthi Seminis dauci cretici
Seminis petroselini macedonici Opopanacis
Calamintae montana Galbani puri
Cassia lignea Bituminis judaici
Croci Castorei
Piperis albi
nigri Mellis optimi despumati & cocti
Myrrha trogloditicae Vini generosi
Olibani
Terebinthina chiae
Amomi racemosi
Fiat antidotum

Marcello Fumagalli