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  • Research On Inorganic Chemicals Described By Scientists At Universit

    RESEARCH ON INORGANIC CHEMICALS DESCRIBED BY SCIENTISTS AT UNIVERSITY OF HAIFA

    Science Letter
    June 15, 2010

    According to recent research published in the journal International
    Geology Review, "Inorganic materials have constituted part of the
    inventory of medicinal substances used in various cultures since
    ancient times and continue globally to the present day in many ethnic
    and folk medicines. The medicinal interaction between humans and
    inorganic substances has been ongoing in most societies."

    "Minerals, metals, soils, organic minerals (e.g. asphalt, crude oil,
    glycerine, sulphanilamide, tartaric acid, and vaseline), and other
    pure inorganic substances or mixtures (e.g. ink) have played an
    important, though perhaps minor, role in the healing practice of
    the inhabitants of five continents. This article systematically
    evaluates many historical records that document the materials and
    their uses available from the Levantine (mediaeval Bilad al-Sham)
    societies from the Middle Ages to the present. An overview of the
    data reveals that 23 inorganic substances were recorded as used in
    the Levant from the early mediaeval period to the present; among
    them, alum, arsenic sulphides, asphalt, borax, Jew's stone, soils
    (including the substance known as Armenian earth), galena, hematite,
    iron, lead, lead oxide, mercury, mineral mumia, salt (NaCl), sulphur,
    tartaric acid, vitriol (blue and green), and zinc," wrote E. Lev and
    colleagues, University of Haifa (see also Inorganic Chemicals).

    The researchers concluded: "Fifty-four additional substances were
    first recorded by several ethnopharmacological surveys made during
    the twentieth century; some of these might have been used in the
    mediaeval Levant, but they were not recorded."

    Lev and colleagues published their study in International Geology
    Review (Healing with minerals and inorganic substances: a review of
    Levantine practice from the Middle Ages to the present. International
    Geology Review, 2010;52(7-8):700-725).

    For additional information, contact E. Lev, University of Haifa, Dept.
    of Erets Israel Studies, IL-31999 Haifa, Israel.

    The publisher's contact information for the journal International
    Geology Review is: Taylor & Francis Inc., 325 Chestnut St., Suite 800,
    Philadelphia, PA 19106, USA.




    From: A. Papazian
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