Egypt's oldest wines were spiked with meds.Byline: ANI Washington, Apr 14 (ANI): Ancient Egyptians This is a list of ancient Egyptian people who have articles on Wikipedia. A
Deep inside the tomb of Scorpion I, archaeochemist Patrick McGovern and colleagues found that 5,000-year-old wines were spiked with natural medicines-centuries before the practice was thought to exist in Egypt. The experts found chemical residues of herbs, tree resins, and other natural substances inside wine jars from the tomb. While the additives may have been flavorful, they were picked for their medical benefits, said McGovern, of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology is an archaeology and anthropology museum that is part of the University of Pennsylvania in University City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. . The early Egyptians "were living in a world without modern synthetic medicines, and they were very aware of the benefits that natural additives can have-especially if dissolved into an alcoholic medium, like wine or beer," which breaks down plant alkaloids alkaloids, n alkaline phytochemicals that contain nitrogen in a heterocyclic ring structure. They can have powerful pharmacological effects and are more often used in traditional medicine than in herbal treatments. . Papyrus papyrus (pəpī`rəs), a sedge (Cyperus papyrus), now almost extinct in Egypt but so universally used there in antiquity as to be the hieroglyphic symbol for Lower Egypt and a common motif in art. records from as long ago as 1850 B.C. detail how such medicinal tipples were made to treat a range of ailments. "Now this chemical evidence pushes that date back another 1,500 years," National Geographic News quoted McGovern, as saying. Now, collaborating with researchers at Penn Medicine's Abramson Cancer Center, McGovern's team is using biomolecular analysis to uncover the ancient wine-medicine recipes and hopefully put them to the test. "We're trying to rediscover why ancient people thought these particular herbs were medically useful," he said, "and seeing if they are effective for the treatment of cancer or other modern diseases." The study is to be published in journal PNAS PNAS Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences PNAS Phosphate:Na + Symporter PNAS Pensacola Naval Air Station PNAS Philippine National Airsoft Society . (ANI) Copyright 2009 Asian News International The Asian News International (ANI) agency provides multimedia news to China and 50 bureaus in India. It covers virtually all of South Asia since its foundation and presently claims, on its official website, to be the leading South Asia-wide news agency. (ANI) - All Rights Reserved. Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company |
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