EXAMS AND ME

Monday, 10 March 2025

Ladenburg isolated hyoscine, also known as scopolamine for the first time in 1880.

It’s an alkaloid that a chemist called Albert Ladenburg first isolated from the nightshade plant Scopolia carniolica in 1880. This plant was itself named after an Italian naturalist, Antonio Scopoli, and so the new molecule was called scopolamine.

Antonio Scopoli = Scopolamine

Scopolamine

Then And Now

Scopolamine aka Devils Breath

Snapshot

Hyssop

The bunch of hyssop, which in Hebrew is ezob in Arabic zufa, and was translated into Greek as hyssopos,, refers to a small bush, which must have been very abundant in Israel as it is mentioned frequently in the Bible (Ex. 12:22; Lv. 14:4, 6, 49, 51; Nm. 19:6; Psalm 51:7; Acts. 9:19; etc.).

The Hebrews used it for aspersion, or to sprinkle tiny droplets of liquids, as in this case where the blood of the paschal lambs on the doorposts and lintels of their houses.

Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning. (Ex. 12:22)

Purification Of Lepers

But it was also used in the purification of lepers and of the houses where they lived (Lv. 14:4-51), and in the offerings of cattle (Num. 19:6).

Hyssop: 30 Bible Verses

Then And Now

Blast From The Past

Infectious Diseases Mentioned In The Bible

Snapshot

Hyssop: Oldest Magic Wand

Flow Of Seed

Gonorrhea

The Roman physician Galen in 130 AD described the disease as an "involuntary escape of semen".

The word itself derives from the Greek, meaning "the flow of seed".

Pre-Antibiotic Era Treatment

Gonorrhea

Galen To Albert Neisser

Thayer Martin Agar

Thayer-Martin agar, a selective medium for culturing Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Neisseria meningitidis, was

Initially developed by John D. Thayer and John E. Martin Jr. in 1964, with an improved formulation published in 1966.

Then And Now

Snapshot

Gonorrhea: Oldest Known Human Diseases

Gonorrhea during the 19th century in Ferrara, referring to Campana's Pharmacopoeia and unpublished manuscripts concerning the treatment of this disease in medical practice. The remedies for gonorrhea adopted in the city were in line with those utilized in other countries. Among these, copaiba oleoresins have been demonstrated to have been efficacious in the past against gonococcal disease in popular medical use and, recently, against a large number of bacteria, fungi and protozoa, which will call for more in vitro and clinical studies to evaluate their real effectiveness on the N. gonorrheae bacterium.