Traditional medicine and the present: the therapy of gout

Abstract

The authors describe the history of treatment of gout by using colchicine (colchicum; the active substance of Colchicum autumnale). The references to this plant and its effects (incl. several recipes for the preparation of remedies) in the gout treatment date back already from the antiquity, but the indisputable evidence of its use in the therapy of the disease in question comes only from the 6th century AD, by Alexander of Tralles.

At present, colchicine became an officially preferred drug.

Keywords

• traditional medicine
• antiquity
• colchicine
• artemisinin
• Alexander of Tralles