Avicenna's (Ibn Sina) Medicine & Pharmacotherapy

Kadircan KESKINBORA​

Prof.Dr., Professor of Ophthalmology Ph.D., Medical Ethics and History of Medicine Bahcesehir Univ. School of Medicine Istanbul-TURKEY

The most conspicuous features of Ibn Sina’s Medicine

  Ibn Sina's contributions to medicine include

 the introduction of quarantine to limit the spread of contagious diseases,  the discovery of the contagious nature of infectious diseases,  the idea of a syndrome in the diagnosis of specific diseases  some stomach ulcers were from physical causes and others from mental worry and depression  urged surgery to remove cancer  used music to help heal his patients

The most conspicuous features of Ibn Sina’s Medicine 2

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In his medical encyclopedia, The Canon of Medicine (c. 1025), which was also the first book dealing with • the introduction of experimental medicine, • evidence-based medicine • randomized controlled trials • efficacy tests • clinical pharmacology

El-Kânûn fi’t-Tıbb

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In outline, the work consists of five books: I. II. III. IV. V.

a general discussion of the scientific background to medicine and anatomy, an account of the therapeutic properties of substances used in medicine, a book devoted to specific or localized ailments, another book to more general diseases, such as fever, that affect the whole body, a treatise on pharmacology

El Kânûn fi’t-Tıbb (Qanon)

  He did not write a book on pharmacology,  but the second and fifth volumes of his book, El Kânûn fi’t-Tıbb (Qanon) which consisted of 5 books are on pharmacology  2nd book: simple drugs  5th book: he gave prescriptions  But Ibn Sina did not give only medical knowledge in his work; we can find his medical philosophy in it

2nd book

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 In the second book at first he explained  the temperaments of simple drugs  determination of their temperaments through the experiments  tried to define their temperaments through the analogies  (Briefly, to evaluate the effects of simple drugs)

 He also gave definition of different simple drugs, depending on their actions and properties as a physician

  Ibn Sina begins the second book (on

simple drugs, or materia medica) with a discussion on the nature and quality of drugs (they were each assigned a pair of qualities, cold or warm, dry or moist), and the way that mixing them influences their effectiveness.  The second chapter (maqalah) of Book 2 is ‘On knowledge of the potency of drugs through experimentation (tajribah)’.

Contents of Ibn Sina's Canon of Medicine vol. 2

 Section One- On the natural Cannons to be known (learned about) regarding drugs used in the science of medicine Section Two – On enumeration of the specific drugs (taken seriatim) Six treatises

Contents of Ibn Sina's Canon of Medicine vol. 2 (Six treatises)

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1 – On recognizing the temperaments or constitution of specific drugs 2 – On recognizing the temperaments or constitution of specific drugs by experiment 3 – On recognizing the temperament or constitution of specific drugs by deduction or comparison 4 – On recognizing actions which specific drugs may possess 5 – On recognizing consequences (changes) on drugs, due to external factors 6 – Collection and preservation of (fauna and flora and others) remedies

Contents of the complete Arabic book of 1593 ‫ حندقوقي‬Meliotus officinalis, Melilotus

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177

 Here, let’s choose a simple drug and show how explain it. e.g., Melilot (Melilous officinalis, Linn.) drug is explained in Ibn Sina’s Canon as follows:  Nature: it is the flower of a plant, which is of strawcolor.  It is crescent shaped, had some hardness with porosity and is of two kinds- white and yellow.  According to Dioscorides some people call it alsayfiyun which is dry grass with many blades having four angles and whitish in color.  The blades are similar to the leaves of quince, though they are little longer. It has some roughness which is covered by white fibers. It grows in rough places. http://ddc.aub.edu.lb/projects/saab/avicenna/contentseng.html

e.g. Melilot

  Avicenna also gave which kinds of melilot was good quality;    

its temperament actions properties usage

 In the explanation of its usage he gave at first whether it could be used for wounds and ulcer pimples and inflammation including in its usage for the treatment of the systems of the body, like the organs of the head, the ocular system and excretory organs.

Seven Rules of Testing Drugs of Ibn Sina

1)

ď‚– The drug must be free from any extraneous accidental

quality.

2) It must be used on a simple, not a composite disease.

3) The drug must be tested with two contrary types of diseases, because sometimes a drug cures one disease by its essential qualities and another by its accidental ones.

4) The quality of the drug must correspond to the strength of the disease. For example, there are some drugs whose heat is less than the coldness of certain diseases, so that they would have no effect on them.

Seven Rules of Testing Drugs of Ibn Sina 2

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5) The time of action must be observed, so that essence and accident are not confused.

6) The effect of the drug must be seen to occur constantly or in many cases, for if this did not happen, it was an accidental effect.

7) The experimentation must be done with the human body, for testing a drug on a lion or a horse might not prove anything about its effect on man.

 However closely one may identify modern notions about testing drugs in each of Ibn Sina’s seven points, his seventh point remains very relevant.  One of the few systematic comparisons of drug studies done in animals and humans showed substantial discordance, which the authors of the study attributed either to bias or to the failure of animal models to mimic clinical disease adequately.

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Nasser M, Tibi A, Savage-Smith E. Ibn Sina’s Canon of Medicine: 11th century rules for assessing the effects of drugs.

J R Soc Med 2009: 102: 78.

Bracken MB. Why animal studies are often poor predictors of human reactions to exposure. The James Lind Library; 2008 Perel P, Roberts I, Sena E, et al. Comparison of treatment effects between animal experiments and clinical trials: systematic review. BMJ 2007;334:197.

Steam Distillation  Avicenna invented the method of steam distillation to manufacture essential oils.  Steam distillation works by bubbling steam through a heated mixture of raw materials.  The steam will cause some of the compound within the raw material to vaporize with the steam  When the steam is condensed the compound within the steam condenses to a liquid state which results in a oily layer above the water

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Steam Distillation of Essential Oils Process

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http://www.idefix.com/kitap/ibn-sinanin-kucuk-tip-kanunu-hkadircan-keskinbora/tanim.asp?sid=L3BEQ6ZSPS4SJHSH4C3H

  İbn Sina'nın Küçük Tıp Kanunu  Ciltli Kitap  İbn Sina'nın Küçük Tıp Kanunu  H. Kadircan Keskinbora  Bahçeşehir Üni.Yayınları / Özel Dizi

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