Jacek Drobnik

Medicinal mosses in pre-Linnaean bryophyte floras of central Europe. An example from the natural history of Poland

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE The paper presents information about the earliest botanical work from Poland, Warsavia physice illustrata which takes bryophytes into account. It was elaborated by a German physician Christian Heinrich Erndtel and issued in 1730 in Dresden. That time understanding of bryophytes was imprecise and in many cases they were confused with lichens and club mosses. MATERIALS AND METHODS Bryophyte taxa polynomials (18 names) were identified using pre- and post-Linnaean botanical monographs from years 1590 to 1801. Their current names and pharmacological value are provided, as well as the old ethnobotanical data about bryophytes (cited from 18th-century sources). RESULTS Altogether 18 bryophyte species were identified from the vicinity of Warsaw (17 mosses and 1 liverwort). Some of them are still abundant in this area (for example Climacium dendroides, Plagiomnium undulatum and Polytrichum juniperinum) while some other are rare or extinct (for example Neckera crispa and Rhodobryum roseum). CONCLUSIONS Despite the technical ability to observe specific microscopic differences among bryophytes, physicians of 18th century were hardly interested in using any of them as medicinal stock. It may be concluded that the competences in pre-Linnaean bryology did not put into practice using moss-derived materia medica of 18th century (the only exceptions were Fontinalis antipyretica and Polytrichum spp.).

The Earliest Bryological Data from East-Central Europe

This paper presents an annotated list of bryophyte species recorded within the present area of Poland and Kaliningrad Oblast (Russia), which were published in various botanical works between 1590 and 1730 in the pre-Linnaean period of plant taxonomy. Amongst a number of early botanical works, two catalogues are of special importance. These are the treatise on plants of the Kingdom of Poland by G. Rzączyński, of 1721, and a catalogue of plants recorded in the vicinity of Warsaw by H. C. Erndtel, of 1730. The first bryological records from the area of contemporary Poland originate from the village of Miłomłyn (German Liebemühl) and from the vicinity of the city of Gdańsk (German Danzig) and were published in 1590 and in 1643, respectively. In the pre-Linnaean period of botany, 24 bryophyte species were known from the area of todays Poland, including two liverworts and 22 mosses. For each species, localities are provided and polynomial synonyms appearing in the early literature are thoroughly discussed.

Brachythecium rutabulum, A Neglected Medicinal Moss

The search for new pharmaceuticals from naturally occurring biological materials has been guided by ethnobiological data. The investigation of folk medicine is a valuable tool in bioprospecting for pharmaceutical compounds (Costa-Neto 2002), and natural product drug development is key to the pharmaceutical industry. Over the past decade, research on medicinal plants has increasingly used historical medicobotanical texts both to study the development of pharmacopoeias as well as to identify candidate species for drug development (Staub et al. 2016). The first medicinal bryophytes were noted in the first century and subsequently a relatively large number of species in the phylum Bryophyta have been recognized in medicinal usage since the sixteenth century (Drobnik and Stebel 2014, 2015). In 1600, Caspar Schwenckfeld listed six botanical names for bryophytes, which specified at least four species used as remedies in folk medicine (Drobnik and Stebel 2015). Cooper (2010) concluded that Catalogues of flora from specific European regions were published to provide local resources for the distribution and use of medicinal plants. Indigenous plants could be substituted for the exotic, often unavailable or unaffordable Materia Medica. Examples include the Harz Mountains (Thal 1588), Silesia (von Schwenckfeld 1600), Pomerania (Ölhafen 1643, 1656), and East Prussia (Loesel 1654). Since Galen’s first century works listed mostly Italian medicinal plants, these books enabled local inhabitants, including pharmacists and physicians, to harvest medicinal raw materials locally (Cooper 2010). Historical medical applications of some species bryophytes listed in these catalogues correspond with today’s pharmacological knowledge of the herb (Asakawa 2007; Asakawa et al. 2013; Drobnik and Stebel 2014, 2015, 2017). Medicinal plants described in historical sources can be identified by means of a chain of synonymic botanical names (mostly pre-Linnaean), which can be cross-checked with modern knowledge of species morphology, taxonomy, phytochemistry, and ethno-pharmacology (see Drobnik and de Oliveira 2015). Information on ethno-medical and historical uses of bryophytes has been collected to target modern pharmacological research by selecting potential candidate species as medicinal plant sources (Pant 1998; Podterob and Zubets 2002; Glime 2006; Harris 2008; Bowman 2016). Historical works have frequently provided information useful for modern medicinal therapies. For example, Adams et al. (2011) identified apparently lost Renaissance antimalarial remedies with proven antiplasmodial activity. The diuretic action of Polytrichum moss, known in seventeenth century Europe and independently used in traditional Chinese and Guatemalan medicine, was rediscovered in the nineteenth and early twentieth century (Drobnik and Stebel 2015), when Sphagnum moss was used for dressing wounds in 1882, and subsequently used in World War 1 simply as an absorbent. Medicinal use of Sphagnum peat was reported in folk * Jacek Drobnik drobnik@onet.pl

Timeline and bibliography of early isolations of plant metabolites (1770–1820) and their impact to pharmacy: A critical study

Plant metabolites became objects of chemical research for pharmaceutical and medicinal reasons. The period of pure plant substances in chemistry started 1770 with isolation of tartaric acid from wine (wine in pharmacy is a plant-derived preparation). Carl Scheele isolated 7 plant acids: tartaric, benzoic, citric, oxalic, malic, glucuronic and gallic. The era of alkaloids started 1803 when narcotine was discovered and published. Since that time, pharmacists and toxicologists began to recognize alkaloids (or substances regarded as such) as highly active principles responsible for their powerful, thus easily-observed actions to humans and test animals. By 1820 when solanine was isolated, pharmaceutical chemistry has dealt with increasing number of natural plant-derived substances as organic medicines or reagents. The following historical facts have been unknown: Scheeles tartaric acid was introduced officially as a medicinal substance as early as in 1775, benzoic, citric and oxalic acids became official by the end of the 18th century. Morphine was effectively published in 1806 (not 1804), hence the first alkaloid known in isolated state is narcotine (published 1803, official since 1827). Morphine became official in French pharmacy in 1818. And, 1814 is the year when 2 first toxicological accounts on plant-derived acids (oxalic and tartaric) appeared. Practical use in therapy, sometimes soon after discovery, inspired practical pharmacy and stimulated the progress of toxicology. We studied the earliest 50years of plant metabolites isolations era. A revised bibliography and a timeline chart for 24 plant substances from this period is provided. Plants from original publications are taxonomically identified.