Interpreting materia medica. A case study on Ioannes Archiatrus.

Background: Premodern medical texts are an invaluable source for scholars from humanities and sciences. However, they are usually not accessible as few scientists with an interest in premodern materia medica are also qualified philologists. Therefore, a balance has to be struck to translate these texts while preserving information on how reliable we believe a given translation to be.

Pharmaceutical Terminology in Ancient and Medieval Time - and Others.

Ancient and medieval pharmacological and medical texts contain a substantial amount of plant and mineral names. In some cases, the identification is straightforward. But for the majority of the data, we are unable to identify these ingredients with high certainty.

A systematic methodology to assess the identity of plants in historical texts: A case study based on the Byzantine pharmacy text John the Physician's Therapeutics.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: In recent decades, the study of historical texts has attracted research interest, particularly in ethnopharmacology. All studies of the materia medica cited in ancient and medieval texts share a concern, however, as to the reliability of modern identifications of these substances. Previous studies of European or Mediterranean texts relied mostly on authoritative dictionaries or glossaries providing botanical identities for the historical plant names in question.

A review of issues of nomenclature and taxonomy of Hypericum perforatum L. and Kew's Medicinal Plant Names Services.

Objectives: To review which names are used to refer to Hypericum perforatum L. in health regulation and medicinal plant references, and the potential for ambiguity or imprecision.

Key Findings: Structured searches of Kew's Medicinal Plant Names Services Resource, supplemented with other online bibliographic resources, found that the scientific name Hypericum perforatum L.

What is in a name? The need for accurate scientific nomenclature for plants.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: To avoid ambiguities and error, ethnopharmacological and any other research on plants requires precise and appropriate use of botanical scientific nomenclature.

Aims: This paper explores problems and impacts of ambiguous or erroneous use of botanical scientific nomenclature in ethnopharmacological studies. It suggests how the frequency and impact of such errors can be reduced.