Of Universal Antidotes
Those of you who’ve studied alchemy –- or, okay, those of you who’ve read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince –- are familiar with bezoars. These “stones” –- extracted from the gut of wild goats, cows and apes –- are actually stomach or intestinal calculi formed by calcium phosphate deposition around foreign bodies. The Persians called these stones pad Zahr (“expeller of poisons”) and the ancient Hebrews called them bel Zaard (“every cure for poisons”). Administered orally, bezoar stones were said to counteract every poison known to man, a “universal antidote.” It was the surgeon Ambroise Pare who first questioned the antidotal properties of bezoars.
The closest thing to a “universal antidote” that we have is activated charcoal -- not a real antidote per se but a treatment that is effective in a majority of acute poisoning scenarios.
The search for a universal antidote may have started with the ancient Greeks. The earliest written account of the use of an antidote can be found in The Odyssey, where Ulysses was told to protect himself with “moly,” now believed to be Snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis), a cholinesterase inhibitor which may have counteracted the effects of poisonous plants such as Jimsonweed (Datura stramonium). The Greeks called their universal antidotes theriacs, the most famous being the Mithridatum and the theriac of Andromachus.
The Roman king Mithradates VI of Pontus (132-63 BC) became so paranoid after repeated assassination attempts during his early reign that he became obsessed with finding the elusive universal antidote. He performed gruesome experiments with slaves and criminals, and the end result is a 36 –- according to Galen, 54 –- ingredient concoction known as the mithradatum, which the king took daily. So successful was this antidote that when he was defeated by his enemies, his every attempt at suicide through poisoning proved futile, forcing him to order one of his soldiers to kill him with a sword. This tale is the origin of the term “mithridatic.”
Andromachus (AD 37-68), physician to the Roman emperor Nero, was said to have developed a theriac more effective than mithradatum. After removing some of the ingredients of the original concoction, he added an assortment of substances including viper flesh and opium. It was said that 73 ingredients were needed. Galen even experimented with fowl to prove its efficacy. As time went by, more and more ingredients were added to the concoction. By the Middle Ages, the theriac of Andromachus had more than a hundred ingredients, needed years to prepare, and had so much stuff in it that it had become solid in consistency (the original theriac was a liquid). There have been countless variations in the original formula throughout the ages but their efficacy was finally questioned by William Heberden in 1745.
Terra Sigillata
In the 5th century BC, a substances called terra sigillata or “sacred sealed earth” was touted to be a universal antidote. Consisting of red clay found only in a particular hill in the Greek Island of Lemnos, it was retrieved only once per year and was prepared by mixing it with goat’s blood to make a paste. Similar antidotal clays were found in other countries. It is speculated that the substance acted like activated charcoal, adsorbing toxic chemicals thus decreasing the amount of toxin absorbed by the gut.
Legend has it that drinking wine from a unicorn’s horn would protect one from poison. In the Middle Ages, narwhal tusks and rhinoceros horns were sold as unicorn horns, and were used not only as antidotes but as toxin detectors. According to lore, cups made of unicorn horn would sweat when it detected the presence of a poisonous substance. The effectiveness of unicorn horn as an antidote was first questioned by Ambrose Pare in the 1500s.
Now, charcoal is not a true antidote. It doesn’t directly counteract the effects of a poison but acts by binding substances to its surface (adsorption) thus preventing absorption of these substances into the blood stream. This principle was first described in the 1700s but a series of self-experiments in 19th century France would confirm its usefulness in the treatment of acute poisoning. The first was by a chemist named M. Bertrand who survived after ingesting a lethal dose of arsenic trioxide and charcoal. The second crazy SOB to gamble with his life was pharmacist P.F. Touery who ingested 10 times the lethal dose of strychnine and 15 grams of charcoal. In 1900, the Russian Ostrejko found that treating charcoal with superheated steam increased its ability to adsorb chemicals. To this day, activated charcoal is used in gastrointestinal decontamination, one the first steps in the management of acute poisoning.
Textbook: Goldfrank’s Toxicologic Emergencies
The closest thing to a “universal antidote” that we have is activated charcoal -- not a real antidote per se but a treatment that is effective in a majority of acute poisoning scenarios.
The search for a universal antidote may have started with the ancient Greeks. The earliest written account of the use of an antidote can be found in The Odyssey, where Ulysses was told to protect himself with “moly,” now believed to be Snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis), a cholinesterase inhibitor which may have counteracted the effects of poisonous plants such as Jimsonweed (Datura stramonium). The Greeks called their universal antidotes theriacs, the most famous being the Mithridatum and the theriac of Andromachus.
The Mithridatum
The Roman king Mithradates VI of Pontus (132-63 BC) became so paranoid after repeated assassination attempts during his early reign that he became obsessed with finding the elusive universal antidote. He performed gruesome experiments with slaves and criminals, and the end result is a 36 –- according to Galen, 54 –- ingredient concoction known as the mithradatum, which the king took daily. So successful was this antidote that when he was defeated by his enemies, his every attempt at suicide through poisoning proved futile, forcing him to order one of his soldiers to kill him with a sword. This tale is the origin of the term “mithridatic.”
The Theriac of Andromachus
Andromachus (AD 37-68), physician to the Roman emperor Nero, was said to have developed a theriac more effective than mithradatum. After removing some of the ingredients of the original concoction, he added an assortment of substances including viper flesh and opium. It was said that 73 ingredients were needed. Galen even experimented with fowl to prove its efficacy. As time went by, more and more ingredients were added to the concoction. By the Middle Ages, the theriac of Andromachus had more than a hundred ingredients, needed years to prepare, and had so much stuff in it that it had become solid in consistency (the original theriac was a liquid). There have been countless variations in the original formula throughout the ages but their efficacy was finally questioned by William Heberden in 1745.
Terra Sigillata
In the 5th century BC, a substances called terra sigillata or “sacred sealed earth” was touted to be a universal antidote. Consisting of red clay found only in a particular hill in the Greek Island of Lemnos, it was retrieved only once per year and was prepared by mixing it with goat’s blood to make a paste. Similar antidotal clays were found in other countries. It is speculated that the substance acted like activated charcoal, adsorbing toxic chemicals thus decreasing the amount of toxin absorbed by the gut.
Unicorn horns
Legend has it that drinking wine from a unicorn’s horn would protect one from poison. In the Middle Ages, narwhal tusks and rhinoceros horns were sold as unicorn horns, and were used not only as antidotes but as toxin detectors. According to lore, cups made of unicorn horn would sweat when it detected the presence of a poisonous substance. The effectiveness of unicorn horn as an antidote was first questioned by Ambrose Pare in the 1500s.
Charcoal
Now, charcoal is not a true antidote. It doesn’t directly counteract the effects of a poison but acts by binding substances to its surface (adsorption) thus preventing absorption of these substances into the blood stream. This principle was first described in the 1700s but a series of self-experiments in 19th century France would confirm its usefulness in the treatment of acute poisoning. The first was by a chemist named M. Bertrand who survived after ingesting a lethal dose of arsenic trioxide and charcoal. The second crazy SOB to gamble with his life was pharmacist P.F. Touery who ingested 10 times the lethal dose of strychnine and 15 grams of charcoal. In 1900, the Russian Ostrejko found that treating charcoal with superheated steam increased its ability to adsorb chemicals. To this day, activated charcoal is used in gastrointestinal decontamination, one the first steps in the management of acute poisoning.
Sources
Textbook: Goldfrank’s Toxicologic Emergencies
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