Historical Drugs in Transylvania: Disclosing the Composition of Ointments from the "History of Pharmacy Collection" in Cluj-Napoca Through a Multi-Analytical Approach.

The National Museum of Transylvanian History in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, features a History of Pharmacy Collection that documents the evolution of pharmacies in the region since the 16th century. Within the "Pharmatrans" project (2021-2023), we investigated the chemical composition of ointments from fourteen historical pharmaceutical containers dating back to the 18th and 19th centuries. Most samples were from an aristocratic traveling medicine chest, a key artifact in the collection.