Hildegard of Bingen was a twelfth-century nun, writer, theologian, natural philosopher, medical practitioner, political activist and playwright among other tittles. She is also the presumed author of the original medical text Liber simplicis medicinae, more commonly known as Physica, originally presented in a set of five manuscripts. One of the documents, Cause et Cure (Causes and Cures) contains twelfth-century medical principles and has been preserved in a thirteenth-century manuscript. The concepts discussed in Cause et Cure incorporate the Empedoclectic doctrine: four distinct elements- fire, air, water, and earth- which are essential to all life. These four basic elements are also an integral part of the ideas illustrated in the Corpus Hippocraticum, one of the most well-known medical documents of Antiquity. Each of the Empedoclectic factors corresponds to the four fundamental bodily fluids: yellow bile, blood, phlegm, and black bile. In Cause et Cure, Hildegard describes a healthy person as having a balance of these four bodily fluids; therefore, a diseased person would have an imbalance of any of the four bodily substances also known as “humors.” In Cause et Cure, Hildegard prescribes treatments that essentially readjust the imbalance of the humors, via diet, medication,and lifestyle, as well as the elimination of waste matter, via sweating, sneezing, crying, vomiting and bloodletting. Many of Hildegard’s proposed medical treatments stem from the Hippocratic tenet “cure opposites with opposites.” Hildegard also prescribes many natural remedies such as the use of bear fat and wheat for treating hair loss, as well as a sage and vinegar concoction that is used to treat migraine headaches. Between 1983 and 1994, over forty percent of the drugs approved by the FDA were derived from natural compounds. Furthermore, natural compounds often provide a lead to the development of new synthetic drugs. I intend to deconstruct particular natural remedies described in Cause et Cure, and, through contemporary scientific analysis, reveal any similarities in the chemical basis of various medications used today. I would also like to examine the possibility of additional research surrounding the natural remedies described in Hildegard’s Cause et Cure in the context of future drug discovery.
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