Oxymel
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Oxymel (Template:Ety, Template:Ety) is a mixture of honey and vinegar, used as a medicine. According to Scientific American, recently the mixture has been used successfully in a biofilm for topical uses on wounds where bacteria has become resistant to antibiotics, both ingredients having been used historicaly as antiseptics, but the combination was reported as killing as much as 1,000 times more bacteria than vinegar alone and as much as 100,000 times more than honey alone in biofilms.[1]
Its name is often found in Renaissance (and later) pharmacopoeiae in Late Latin form as either a countable or uncountable noun. As a countable noun, it is spelled variously as (singular) oxymellusScript error: No such module "Unsubst". and oxymellis,[2] and plural oxymeli[3] and oxymelli.[4][5]
Etymology and recipe
Cato the Elder describes it thus:
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- A wine made from vinegar and honey, which in Greece was called oxymel, (Template:Ety, hence [Latin] "oxymel"). It is made thus. Ten libras[6] of honey with five heminas[7] of vinegar, which will be subsumed. Themison confused oxymel and hydromel. But hydromel wine is made from water and honey, hence the name. Its name recalls the creation of omphacomel, which is made from semi-dry [i.e. sharp] grapes and sweet honey, hence the name, Template:Ety. Hence what is called Script error: No such module "Lang". ["omphalic oil"], from sour olives which in Greek is called Script error: No such module "Lang".(?), and omphacium from grapes, commonly called agreste.
Use
In the 1593 work Enchiridion chirurgicum, oxymel was recommended as part of a treatment for ophthalmia.[8]
Because Latin was (and is) still used widely in medical prescriptions, it was still known by this name in Victorian times:
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Template:Not a typo: Plumbi Acetatis, gr. j. Solve in Aquae Rosae, ℥j.; et adde Oxymellis Simplicis, ʒj.; Tinct. Opii, ♏︎v.; Tinct. Digitalis, ♏︎x. Fiat Haustus, quartis vel sextis horis sumendus.
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- Prescription: Lead acetate one grain. Dissolve in rose water, one ounce; and add undiluted oxymel, one drachm; tincture of opium, five minims; tincture of digitalis, ten minims. To be taken every four to six hours.
See also
References
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- ↑ Gawrylewski, Andrea, Scientific American Newsletter, October 11, 2023
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- ↑ One Roman pound libra = 328.9 g See: Ancient Roman units of measurement
- ↑ One hemina = 273 ml See: Ancient Roman units of measurement
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