Hiera Picra
Ayarij Fiqra (Unani)
‘Holy Bitters’
Tradition:
Western, Unani
Source / Author:
Themison of Ladodicea (c. 50 BC)
Galen is often credited, but he was not the originator.
1. The First version is the original of Themison of Ladodicea (c. 50 BC)
|
Herb Name |
Latin |
Amount |
|---|---|---|
|
Pistacia lentiscus | ||
|
Crocus sativus | ||
|
Nardostachys jatamansi | ||
|
Commiphora opobalsamum | ||
|
Asarum europeum |
1 ounce ea. | |
|
Aloe vera |
100 drams |
2. The Second is the reformed version of Galen:
|
Herb Name |
Latin |
Amount |
|---|---|---|
|
Cinnamonum zeylanicum | ||
|
Commiphora opobalsamum | ||
|
Asarum europeum | ||
|
Nardostachys jatamansi | ||
|
Pistacia lentiscus | ||
|
Crocus sativus |
6 drams each | |
|
Aloe vera |
12 1⁄2 ounces |
3. The Third is from Mesue
|
Herb Name |
Latin |
Amount |
|---|---|---|
|
Cinnamonum zeylanicum | ||
|
Commiphora opobalsamum | ||
|
Asarum europeum | ||
|
Nardostachys jatamansi | ||
|
Crocus sativus | ||
|
Pistacia lentiscus | ||
|
Cinnamonum cassia |
1 ounce ea. | |
|
Aloe vera |
14 ounces |
4. A version from Pharmacopeia Pauperum, (1718)
|
Herb Name |
Latin |
Amount |
|---|---|---|
|
Cinnamonum zeylanicum | ||
|
Alpina officinarum | ||
|
Asarum europeum | ||
|
Nardostachys jatamansi | ||
|
Commiphora molmol | ||
|
Crocus sativus |
6 drams each | |
|
Aloe vera |
12 ounces |
5. A Contemporary Unani version (Ayarij Fiqra):
|
Herb Name |
Latin |
Amount |
|---|---|---|
|
Valeriana officinalis | ||
|
Cinnamonum cassia | ||
|
Cinnamonum zeylanicum | ||
|
Commiphora opobalsamum | ||
|
Commiphora opobalsamum | ||
|
Pistacia lentiscus |
25 grams each | |
|
Crocus sativus |
8 grams | |
|
Aloe vera |
400 grams |
Preparation:
It is either used as a powder, or mixed with Honey to form an Electuarty. Generally, 3 parts by weight of clarified Honey can be used to form an Electuary.
Function:
Cleanses the Stomach, purifies the Blood, opens Obstructions, promotes Urine and Menstruation
Use:
“used for the stomach, and for all the ailments of the head which occur sympathetically”.
“Cleansing the memebrs [organs] & expelling superfluous things from the Brain; strong against twisting pain of the abdomen [torturum]; and for the [diseases] of the tongue and ears; for the wrong disposition of the Stomach, & the Bladder, and of the rest of the members [organs]; It is also useful for Arthritic pain and Colic”. (Pharmacopoeia Persica, 1681)
It “opens obstructions of the Liver, Spleen, Pancreas and Mesentery; it keeps the Belly free, causes the Hemorrhoids to flow, provokes the Terms of Women, dissipates the Vapours of the Matrix, and cleanses the impurities thereof”. (Charras, French Pharmacopoeia)
1. Cleanses the Stomach and Bowels; used when Appetite or Digestion is affected by excess Humors or Food Stagnation.
2. Abdominal pain or cramping
3. Cleanses the Blood;
4. Used for various diseases requiring cleansing and opening; Ulcers; Tumors;
5. Headaches and otehr diseases of the Head coming from the Stoamch
6. Promotes Menstruation
7. Often added to larger formulas.
8. Also sometimes used in Enemas
Dose:
1⁄2–1 dram of the powder with Honey, or with Prunes; 2–3 drams if made into a confection with Honey.
Cautions:
1. Not used during Pregnancy
2. Not used for more than 2 weeks without a break
Modifications:
1. To cleanse and purge the Stomach, add Cassia Fistula and Sugar.
2. To cleanse the Stomach when Damp, take with Tubith and Ginger
3. Insatiable Hunger from Heat, take with a decoction of Rhubarb, Myrobalans and Sour Dates
4. To purge Phlegm, add Chebulic Myrobalan and Polypody root
5. Obstruction of the Liver with Heat, take with Cassia Fistula
6. For Stomach Abscess; Take with Decoction of Mint, Wormwood, Maidenhair, Rose, Annis to which some Honey of Roses has been added.
7. Stomach Ulcers, take with Barley water or Mead
8. Dizziness: Hiera Picra 1⁄2 oz., Compound Oxymel 1 oz; take with a decoction made of Hyssop and Zedoary. (Wirtzung)
9. Arthritic disorders, add Rhubarb, Agaric, Chebulic Myrobalan.
10. Menstrual pain, and to promote Menstruation, mix equal parts of Pennyroyal and Hiera Picra.
11. Obstructed Menstruation, Hiera Picra, prepared Iron (2 drams each), Borax, Myrrh (1 scruple each), form 88 pills with Savin juice. Take 3 Pills every second day. (Aristotle)
12. Uterine Fibroids, add Polypody, Black Hellebore, Agaric, Lapis Lazuli (as in Pills for Uterine Fibroids)
13. Worms, add Wormseed, Scordium, Centuary (1 dram each) to 2 drams of Hiera Picra. Mix and divide into 10 doses.
14. Hiera Picra can be made into Suppositories in the following manner: Hiera Picra 1 dram; Salt 1⁄2 Scruple; Honey 1 oz.; ‘Seethe them all together hard, and make suppositories of them’. These were used for Constipation.
15. Electuarium Picra (Bitter Electuary) was made with Hiera Picra (12 drams), Myrobalans Chebulia, Emblic, Belleric (2 drams ea.), Sea Salt (2 1⁄2 drams), mixed with three times their weight of clarified Honey. Used for poor appetite and weak digestion.
Similar Formula
Formulas containing Hiera Picra:
Hospital Pill to cleanse the Chest (Unani)
Indian Pills (Mesue)
Pills for Epilepsy from Melancholy of Serapion
Pills for Melancholy (Unani)
Pills for Uterine Fibroids
Pills of Agaric (Avicenna)
Pills of Agaric (Mesue)
Pills of Azurite (Mesue)
Pills of Lapis Lazuli (Mesue)
Pills of Rhubarb (Mesue)
Pills to Cleanse the Chest
Stomach Pills Greater (Mesue)
Confection of Stoechas
Triphera of Dodder of Thyme (Mesue)
A number of authorities believed its use began in the Aesculpian Temples, but this cannot be verified.
Many credited it to Galen, although “Galen is perhibited its Author rather because he celebrated it, then invented”. Galen highly praised its value and he was its greatest proponent, for which reason it carried his name for 2 millennia. However, it, or versions of it were invented before his time. A number of authorities believed its use began in the Aesculpian Temples, but this cannot be verified.
At the time of Galen and before, it seems that numerous physicians had their own Hiera. Leclerc said the first Hiera (above) can be traced back to Themison of Laodicea who was in Rome about 50 BC.
Wootton, in his Chronicles of Pharmacy (1910) states that “a medicine with this familiar name can be bought in any chemists shop in Europe or America today, just as it could in Damascus a thousand, or in Rome and Alexandria two thousand years ago. Probably it is the oldest pharmaceutical compound still in existence”.
In 1721, the London Pharmacopeia omitted Mastic and Spikenard, substituting Cardamon for the latter, and in 1746, it was reduced to just Aloes and Canella, under the name Pulvis Aloeticus.
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How to Modify a Formula
Substitutes
Weights & Measures
“This Hiera is, by Galen its author, called Picra, that is, amare [bitter], because of the Aloes, which is its basis; from which it mutuates its purgative faculty. We retain the old composition, save that instead of Xylobalsam [Balsam Wood] which is scarce to be had, we, by Fernelius his advice, substitute Mace; and for the flowers of Sweet Rush, which is not brought to us the Rush itself: and so we keep to the quantity which Galen, or rather Andromachus, prescribed to be mixed with the Aloes.
This Hiera Picra was most usual at Rome; besides other two, which Galen sometimes used; in which he detracted, changed, or at pleasure added what exigence called for. Burt now they are obsolete.
But this yet remains entire, except it be for the wood of Balm, which some take out, and substitute nothing; others the furcles of Lentisks; and others, the fruit of Balm: which is equally rare, therefore no good substitute. But Mace or Sweet-cane may well suceed in its room, and the Hiera: no whit less efficacious. Galen is perhibited its Author, rather because he celebrated it, then invented it. It is easy to make: the Mastic, Aloes and Saffron must first be brayed apart, then the rest; and afterwards the ingredients must all be mixed in despumed honey, that they may acquire the spissitude of an Electuary.
It califies, incides, attenuates, dryes, deterges, removes obstructions, expurges bilious, pituitous, crass, and viscid humours; it conduces miraculously, helps the affections of the Ventricle [Stomach], Mesentery, Liver, Head, and Junctures [joints].” (A Medicinal Dispensatory, Renou, 1657)