Bettina Wahrig

Historical and biochemical aspects of a seventeenth century gold-based aurum vitae recipe

The medicinal chemistry and biomedical applications of gold complexes have been intensively studied over the last decades. Some complexes have been used for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, and a considerable number of new metallodrug candidates have been developed as new anticancer drugs and anti-infectives. However, the therapeutic use of gold and its complexes goes back to ancient times and was also of great importance for alchemists until the modern age. In this report, we give an overview of the alchemic medicine between the sixteenth and the early eighteenth century and describe the cytotoxicity and thioredoxin reductase (TrxR) inhibition of a typical “aurum vitae” medicine, which was prepared according to a recipe by Bartholomäus Kretschmar from the seventeenth century. “Aurum vitae” consists of a mixture of gold, mercury and antimony complexes and shows the expected cytotoxic and TrxR inhibitory properties providing some rationale for therapeutic effects of this kind of historical medicinal preparation.

“Nature Is Lopsided”: Muscarine as Scientific and Literary Fascinosum in Dorothy L. Sayers’ The Documents in the Case

This chapter analyzes the crime plot created by Dorothy L. Sayers and Eustace Barton in 1930, where the victim is killed by the artificial version of the mushroom poison muscarine. The crime is detected because artificial organic substances that have asymmetric molecules do not rotate polarized light. This feature of asymmetrical molecules, namely optical activity, was known to be exclusively produced by living bodies, and fascinated the public. The authors, however, ran into problems, because the “artificial muscarine” they described was not muscarine at all, as recent chemical investigations had shown. On the basis of the correspondence between Sayers and Barton, the chapter argues that the “science behind the plot” fell victim to the very message the novel conveys to the reader: life is never unequivocal; there is no formula, no easily graspable rationale on how to handle it. Just like life itself and like science, nature is lopsided.

Zimt hat eine lange Geschichte und viele Gesichter

CINNAMON’S LONG HISTORY AND MULTIPLE CHARACTERCinnamon is an old medicinal plant whose recognition by European pharmacists and medical practitioners dates back to the late Middle Ages. The availability of information on the plant was accompanied by a strong interest reflected in several scientific literature from the 18 th Century. In recent years, the lay and professional press debated on the medicinal application of cinnamon in treating Diabetes mellitus. This continues the long and multi-faceted history and tradition of the plant as a phytopharmaceutical agent.

»…über Sekunden lacht man nicht« — Über die Folgen der Anwendung von Genauigkeit und Präzision in den Wissenschaften. Einführung in das Tagungsthema

Since the time of Descartes science has been influenced by the demand for precision and accuracy in research. In the 20 th century also humanities began to submit to this demand. The term precision itself has a far-reaching and historically grown semantics. As a consequence of the attempt to answer precisely and irrefutably to scientific questions, achieved knowledge today is only valid for an increasingly narrow range.