It became a tradition at the University of Florence's Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology to assemble all manner of drugs and medicines. After all, reasoned the institute's directors, you never know when a researcher might become interested in a particular therapeutic group.
The hoard has recently been recognized as a collection of considerable historic interest, and much of it has now been catalogued by Piero Dolara and Graziana Fiorini, researchers at the Italian institute.
The catalogue, which has been written in both Italian and English, is available from Firenze University Press and online at http://digital.casalini.it/8884532183. It describes the drugs and provides a short history of experimental pharmacology.
The collection comprises more than 600 hand-blown glass jars from around the world, containing, for example, some rare Arabic preparations made from medicinal plants. Most of the drugs in the collection are from botanical sources. Several, such as quinine, digitalis, aspirin, morphine and cocaine, are still in use.
But the catalogue throws out a caution to romantics who prefer the concept of ‘natural’ medicine to synthetic pharmaceuticals. Many of the botanical preparations would have been ineffective, or toxic, it notes.
Alison Abbott
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A taste of their own medicines. Nature 433, 108 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/433108a
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/433108a
