Pilulae Stomachica
Habb al-Shabyar
Stomach Pills,
or, Pills before Meals
Tradition:
Western, Unani
Source / Author:
Mesue
Preparation:
Powder and form pills with Syrup of Wormwood or Syrup of Rose.
Some sources said to form pills with Fennel or Celery juice.
Function:
Cleanses the Stomach and Head, strengthens Stomach, promotes Digestion
Use:
1. Stomach weakness with Indigestion, Nausea, Poor Appetite
2. Vertigo, Migraine, Lethargy associated with stomach dysfunction
3. Taken before bed, they promote Sleep.
Dose:
1–2 scruples, usually taken before meals, especially in the morning; sometimes before bed.
Taken before bed to promote Sleep.
Cautions:
None noted
Modifications:
1. Mesue had another version containing Turbith which is stronger to clear phlegm and damp from the Stomach. Agaric and Turbith can be added to Stomach Pills above if there is excess Phlegm and Damp.
2. Replacing Rose with Agaric makes Pills of Mastic.
3. When Clove, Saffron and Scammony prepared are added, it forms Pills of Aloe and Mastic of Nicholas, used similarly.
4. When Senna, Gum Ammoniac and Myrrh are added, it forms Stomach Pills with Gums, stronger, and better for thick and obstinate Phlegm.
5. To help promote sleep, add Pearl.
6. To benefit the Brain, add Amber
7. To cleanse and purge the eyes, add Eyebright and Fennel seed
8. To help cleanse the Stomach, add half part of Wormwood
9. To purge the Joints, add Colchicum
10. A more compound Stomach Pills added Myrobalans, Cardamon, Aloeswood, Sandalwood, Clove, Nutmeg, Rhubarb and Turbith. This is stronger to strengthen and regulate the Stomach, and is better for thick Phlegm and more obstinate Humors.
Similar Formulas:
1. Similar to Pills of Mastic of Mesue, which uses Agaric in place of Rose. The Pills of Mastic are stronger for Phlegm and Damp.
2. A number of formulas are based on this trio including Pills for Arthritis, Golden Pills, Pills to Clarify, ‘Pills without which I would not be’ etc.
3. Nicholas had a Pills of Aloe and Mastic, made of Aloe (1 0z.), Mastic (0.5 oz.), Clove, Rose (1 dram ea.), Saffron and prepared Colocynth (1 scruple ea.).
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How to Modify a Formula
Substitutes
Weights & Measures
These were traditionally held to gently cleanse the Stomach, but strongly strengthen the same, promoting and strengthening digestion.
Charras in his Royal Pharmacopeia of France (1678) said “There are several Receipts of Stomach Pills in the Dispensatories, but the plainest of all seems to be the best”.
“They cleanse the Stomach from all foulness, strengthening it, and rendering it capable to perform all its functions. They are also called Pills Before Meals, because they are usually taken before Meals, and require no Regiment at all. They cause but little evacuation at a time, and are therefore given in a small dose, from one scruple to half a dram. You may take them as often as you find occasion”. (Salmon)
The Dispensatory of Ibn at-Tilmid calls these Pills Habb al-Shabyar, meaning “friend of the Night Pills”. Taken at night, they cause sleep, working without harm, and cleansing the Stomach and Brain.
“All Pills which receive of Purgatives only Aloes, or Aloes and Rhubarb, being clement, and drawing humours only from the first region [Stomach and Bowels], and helping the stomach, are called Stomachical, or Pills before meat [food]; because they may at any time, a little before meat, be safely taken: of which sort are those Aloes in the succe [juice] of Roses, coacted into a mass with Wine; as also those of Scaliger, Ruffus, and Pills of Hiera. But these we have given, being most usual, and easy to make, may serve for a rule, for all Stomachical Pills that should be kept in Pharmacopolies: but they should be made only in small quantity, that they may be always new and fresh; for by long keeping they become too dry, and their faculties duller. The mass must be involved in a piece of Leather well oiled, and then reposed in a Tin-pot well shut.
All Pills and other Purges should be given on an empty stomach, especially such as should draw noxious humours from remoter parts, which may be assumed long before or after meat, as after the sleep; but Stomachical Pills not so: for it is enough that they be taken one hour before breakfast, or other meals, that the Belly may be gently subduced, and phlegm, or other prave humours, contained in the Ventricle, or other vicine parts, be educed, which all Stomachical Pills effect, roborating [strengthening] the stomach, resarciating the appetite, and exciting it to rest”, (A Medicinal Dispensatory, Renou, 1657)