With the advent of modern medicine, it’s hard to imagine the role taste had in the preparation of ancient botanical remedies. In layman terms, taste and flavor had a huge role to play in their eventual therapeutic application(s), serving as a foundation upon which ancient health practices were built. A new study has examined how taste influences the utilization of botanical medicine by correlating the impressions of a group of contemporary volunteer tasters with 700 botanical drugs cataloged in the 1st Century AD medical encyclopedia, Of Medical Matter.
The study, published in the journal E Liferevealed that 45 out of 46 therapeutic botanicals were distinctly linked with specific taste characteristics. In fact, taste and smell have influenced medicine since illness was first being treated, something that seems very much absent from the cold, clinical nature of modern medicine.
Taste and Smell: Linking the Senses to Medicinal Healing
“The link between taste and medicine was realized by the ancient Greek philosophers and physicians. To make sense out of clinical symptoms, healing powers and medicine, ancient Greek physicians conceptualized the so-called humoral theory… The then known four basic taste sensations got integrated into this equilibrium model and associated with the four humors: phlegm, blood, yellow bile, and black bile by Galen in the 2nd century AD,” said Marco Leonti from the University of Cagliari who co-authored the research.
At the time, the prevailing belief was that medicine could restore equilibrium to the humoral system and rebalance any disruptions. Although this philosophy has been surpassed by scientific medicine, certain correlations between taste and therapy persist in Western herbal medicine. For instance, bitter-tasting remedies for stomach ailments or astringent substances for diarrhea are still acknowledged. Other medical traditions like Ayurveda, traditional Chinese medicineand indigenous community care also categorize medicinal substances based on flavors to this day.
16th-century German illustration of the four humors: Flegmat (phlegm), Sanguin (blood), Coleric (yellow bile, and Melanc (black bile), divided between the male and female sexes. (Public Domain)
While we observe these remnants of ancient medicine in contemporary practice, comprehending the development of early treatments remains challenging without a time machine. To gain insight into the past, researchers sought a method to compare ancient records with present-day human experiences of these drugs, reports Advanced Science News.
The Scientific Method: A Predictive Model, a Thorough Study
The researchers did not set out to test the efficacy of these plant drugsand clarified that the herbal drugs tested were from ancient medical textsnot modern pharmaceuticals. They explained that it wouldn’t be a significant stretch to investigate whether any of the same plant drugs are currently used for similar purposes.
The model they devised is a predictive one, suggesting that the combination of tastes of a specific mystery drug could potentially be used to predict how likely it would have been used in treating a condition in early premedical history.
The 22 chemosensory qualities and 46 therapeutic uses studied here. Each chemosensory quality and use is represented by an icon that is used throughout the manuscript. Therapeutic uses that share an icon are considered to represent the same category of use (25 in total); these are linked by grey bars. (Leonti, M., et al./elife)
The research team analyzed botanical drugs catalogued in Of Medical Mattera comprehensive resource utilized for over 1500 years to document medicinal materials traded and employed in the Eastern Mediterranean region of the ancient Roman Empire. Trained volunteer tasters were tasked with classifying these drugs using 22 taste descriptors, including bitter, aromatic, fresh, and cooling, and assessing the intensity of each taste. They observed distinct correlations between taste types and the medicinal properties attributed to each plant in the ancient text.
“We found bitter, starchy, musky, sweet, and soapy tasting medicines to be used for more different categories of use. Similarly, botanical drugs with fewer but intense tastes were more versatile,” explained Leonti. Almost all of the 46 therapeutic uses demonstrated significant associations with at least one of the 22 taste qualities, resulting in 99 positive associations and 50 negative associations.
When asked about these connections, the researchers proposed several explanations. For instance, they suggested that the link between sweet-tasting drugs and pain treatment might reflect the known pain-relieving effects of sweet sensations.
Regarding the limited therapeutic versatility of sour-tasting drugs, the researchers speculated that this could be understood by examining the uses negatively associated with this taste. For instance, the significant association between sour taste and the treatment of coughs might be attributed to coughing triggered by acid signaling in the airways.
Interestingly, some tastes retain relevance today. Both starchy and salty flavors were associated with the treatment of diarrhea and dysentery. Contemporary treatments for diarrhea often involve mixtures of glucose, starch, and electrolytes, suggesting that ancient remedies may have provided relief to patients of that era.
“So, the next time you think something has a ‘medicinal’ taste. Maybe it’s a sign that it was once used to treat a medical condition — or even that it might be useful in the future,” concluded co-author Joanna Baker from the University of Reading.
Top image: Ancient Botanical medicine involved smell and taste. Source: Thomas Mucha/Adobe Stock
By Sahir Pandey
