Medicine – Baltic amber has been revered as a medicinal substance since time immemorial and many healing elixirs have been made with it down through the ages. The Persian scientist, philosopher and foremost physician of his time, Ali Ibn Sina, known as Avicenna, 980 – 1037, who’s Canon of Medicine provides a complete system of medicine according to the principles of Galen and Hippocrates and was the standard textbook for Western doctors up until the 17th century, was well versed in the medicinal uses of Baltic amber. He wrote that it was astringent, used to staunch the flow of blood and recommended it as a therapeutic remedy against many diseases.
Albert the Great, also known as Albertus Magnus and Albert of Cologne, 1193/1206, was a Dominican friar and bishop who promoted the peaceful coexistence of science and religion. Granted the title Doctor Universalis by his peers, he is often referred to as the greatest German philosopher and theologian of the Middle Ages. Albertus Magnus believed that stones had spiritual/magical properties and wrote about it in his work De Mineralibus. He categorized Baltic amber as one of the six most valuable medicines of his time.
The Polish astronomer and mathematician Nicholaus Copernicus, 1473-1543, studied medicine at Krakow University and wrote his graduate thesis on Baltic amber’s potent healing properties.
The terms Oleum succini (amber oil), Balsamum succini (amber balsam), and Extractum succini(amber extract or tincture) appear often in the formulas of the alchemists of the Middle Ages and these items were still listed as medicines in A Dictionary of Medical Science; Medical Lexicon of Official and Empirical Preparations, sixth edition dated 1846, written by Robley Dunglison, at the Boston Medical Library of Medicine.
Succinum was considered antispasmodic and diaphoretic in a dose from five to twenty grains. It was commonly referred to as Electrum, Ambra, Ambre jaune and Yellow Amber, reported to be composed of resinous matter, essential oil and an acid, sui generis; inodorous, except when rubbed or heated, insoluble in water, and slightly acted upon by alcohol. The oil, oleum or Balsamum Succini, also known as Huile de Succin, was said to possess stimulating, antispasmodic, diuretic and rubefacient properties.
Baltic amber oil was an ingredient in British Oil, formulated by the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, which also contained oil of terbinth, juniper and aloe and was recommended as a remedy for sprains.
Russians of today promote Succinic acid in pill form as an important anti-alcohol medicine; a substance that reduces the desire for alcohol. They claim that it quickly eliminates the effects of excessive alcohol consumption; a mere 0.1 gram pill reportedly restores an inebriated person’s motor skill to normal. A tincture made of amber and vodka was thought to increase male sexual potency and the use of this remedy persisted from at least the Middle Ages well into World War I.
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