Traditional Jewish medicine | 303Paavilainen records more than 100 different drugs used by Maimonides
for the treatment of melancholy with about 24 of them used most
frequently.^49 Most commonly prescribed were Rosa canina, Citrus,
oxtongue (Helminthia echioides) and pistacia (mastic and pistachio), along
with the mineral jacinth and castoreum, a secretion from beaver glands used
today in the manufacture of perfumes (Figure 11.5). She considers that
almost two-thirds of Maimonides’ treatments for melancholy would have
had some level of efficacy either as a mood enhancer or as a tranquilliser.
Basil is antidepressant and sedative whereas citrus may also be a mood
enhancer, neuroprotective and anti-amnesiac. The pepper genus has
numerous psychoactive properties while raisins and grapes are also neuro-
protective, and wine, of course, can relieve stress and improve the mood if
taken in appropriate quantities. Maimonides also liked to prescribe spike-
nard (Nardostachys jatamansi), also called nard, which is a flowering plant
of the valerian family with flowers and stems that can be crushed and
distilled into an intensely aromatic, amber-colored, essential oil, which is
used as a perfume, as well as a sedative and hypnotic.
Ibn Ezra (1092–1167) was a poet, astronomer and Bible commentator
whose writings detail his own medical knowledge as well as that of contem-
porary physicians, usually accompanied with the formula ‘and this has been
verified with testing’.^50 He divided active medications into those that purge
the body whether by vomiting or by diarrhoea, those that are beneficial for
diseased organs when hung on the arm or neck or by ablution or by drinking,
Figure 11.4 Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare): Hebrew sources recommend fennel as a purgative
and to prevent miscarriage.