Materia medica chests: Investigating the 19th century use of botanicals by different medical professions

Abstract

The use of herbal substances was an element of everyday medicine until the advent of synthetic medicines from the late 19th Century onwards. Medicinal chests were used as teaching and examination tools for apothecaries and pharmacists. The contents of two 19th Century materia medica chests that are owned by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries in London (LSA) were analysed and compared with written texts from the time in order to understand botanical drug knowledge in 19th Century Britain. The samples in the chests and any associated information was documented and analysed.The pharmacists' examination chest contained 84 botanical drug samples, while 94 botanical drugs could be identified in the apothecaries' chest; 45 of these were present in both chests. Minimal changes in herb use over the 19th Century and limited variation of the botanical drugs used by different medical professionals were found. There are some differences in respect to the therapeutic areas which were of importance - the pharmacists' chest contained some potent purgatives and toxic drugs, while botanical drugs unique to the apothecaries' chest were gentle digestives and tonic herbs. Comparison of the chest contents with texts from the 19th Century has indicated that no single historical source provides a complete picture of botanical drug use at the time.This is a pilot study highlighting the potential of such chests in research on the history of European herbal medicine, and a more systematic study including research on the botanical drugs' chemical composition and authenticity is warranted.