Arzneipflanzenindikationen gestern und heute
Hildegard von Bingen, Leonhart Fuchs und Hagers Handbuch im Vergleich
Christine Mayer-Nicolai
This is a comparison of the medical work of two historical authors, namely Hildegard von Bingen (1098–1179) and Leonhart Fuchs (1501–1566), with regard to the indications they awarded to herbal medicines in comparison to scientifically accepted indications. A statistical analysis was included, in order to show, weather the historical indications are randomly assigned or if there is an empirical basis for these indications.
If the indications are not assigned randomly, this could be seen as proof, that hundreds of years before our time, there was knowledge comparable to ours. The probability, that the respective plants, which are not used anymore in medicine today but were used historically, would show the desired effect, could be high. Such plants could be tested according to the current clinical standards to identify their medical potential.
In the past, usually those indications were picked from a number of historical authors and indications, which are comparable to the ones known today for the examined plant. The method used here is new in that respect that it aimed at comparing the medical knowledge of one historical author with regard to the herbs he or she used to the indications accepted for the same herbs today. In order to show if the awarding of indications by one author to a number of plants was done systematically or rather based on random decisions, a statistical comparison between the expected number of random hits and real hits was done.
The historical indications for each plant were analysed according to the following steps:
a) Identification of the plant and indications
b) Counting of the indications per plant
c) Comparison with the indications scientifically accepted today
d) Counting of the match of indications in four tiered categories (identification of hits)
e) Statistical comparison
In conclusion both historical authors did award indications with a higher accuracy than random distribution of indications. This finding is statistically significant. The allocation of indications by Leonhart Fuchs tends to be more in line with the accepted indications today, but this does not mean, that the knowledge of Hildegard von Bingen was lesser.
