Apple Cider Vinegar in Ancient Greece
Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 3:08 pm
I came across a paragraph the other day that made me wonder about something. Bragg Live Foods sells an apple cider vinegar drink ( http://bragg.com/products/bragg-organic ... honey.html ), among other things, and they advertise it with the following paragraph: "Apple Cider Vinegar has been highly regarded throughout history. In 400 B.C. Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, used it for its amazing natural detox cleansing, healing, and energizing qualities. Hippocrates prescribed Apple Cider Vinegar mixed with honey for its health properties." Curious, I went to the Internet Classics Archive and searched the works of Hippocrates for every instance of the words "apple cider vinegar", "apple", and finally, simply "vinegar". Only the last word came up with any hits, which I've included below:
Hippocrates, "On the Articulations", Part 86: "The treatment, if no fever be present, consists in the administration of hellebore, but otherwise (it is not to be given, but oxyglyky (decoction of honeycombs and vinegar) is to be given for drink, if required." (http://classics.mit.edu/Hippocrates/artic.html)
Hippocrates, "On Fractures", Part 11: "But if there be no fever, we must give emetics, as has been said, and administer the other remedies which are applicable when the fever is not of a continual type; but if continual fever be present, we must not give strong medicines, but enjoin abstinence from solid food and soups, and give water for drink, and not allow wine but oxyglyky (a composition from vinegar and honey?)." (http://classics.mit.edu/Hippocrates/fractur.html)
Hippocrates, "On Injuries of the Head", Part 14: "And in making the incision you must separate the flesh from the bone where it is united to the membrane (pericranium?) and to the bone, and then fill the whole wound with a tent, which will expand the wound very wide next day with as little pain as possible; and along with the tents apply a cataplasm, consisting of a mass (maza) of fine flour pounded in vinegar, or boiled so as to render it as glutinous as possible. (http://classics.mit.edu/Hippocrates/headinjur.html)
Hippocrates, "On the Regimen of Acute Disease", Part 7: "And further, barley or tares may be infused and boiled in diluted vinegar, stronger than that it could be drunk, and may then be sewed into bladders and applied; and one may bran in like manner."
---- Part 16: "But if it appears advantageous to use a great deal of this drink during the whole course of the disease, one should add to it merely as much vinegar as can just be perceived by the taste, for thus what is prejudicial in it will do the least possible harm, and what is beneficial will do the more good. In a word, the acidity of vinegar agrees rather with those who are troubled with bitter bile, than with those patients whose bile is black; for the bitter principle is dissolved in it and turned to phlegm, by being suspended in it; whereas black bile is fermented, swells up, and is multiplied thereby: for vinegar is a melanogogue. Vinegar is more prejudicial to women than to men, for it creates pains in the uterus."
---- Appendix, Part 20: "If he labors under difficulty of breathing, if it is the summer season, and if he is in the prime of life, and is strong, blood should be abstracted from the arm, and then he should eat hot pieces of bread, dipped in dark wine and oil, drink very little, and labor much, and live on well-fed pork, boiled with vinegar, so that he may be able to endure hard exercises." (http://classics.mit.edu/Hippocrates/acutedis.html)
Hippocrates, "On Ulcers", Part 4: "When the ulcer is clean, but both it and the surrounding parts are inflamed, lentil is to be boiled in wine and finely triturated, and, being mixed with a little oil, it is to be applied as a cataplasm; and the leaves of the hip-tree are to be boiled in water and pounded in a fine powder and made into a cataplasm; and apply below a thin, clean piece of cloth wetted in wine and oil; and when you wish to produce contraction, prepare the leaves of the hip-tree like the lentil, and the cress; wine and finely-powdered linseed are to be mixed together. And this is proper: linseed, and raw chaste-tree, and Melian alum, all these things being macerated in vinegar."
---- Part 5: "Boil the roots of the holmoak in sweet white wine; and when it appears to be properly done, having poured off two parts of the wine, and of the lees of wine as free of water as possible one part; then boil, stirring it, so that it may not be burnt, at a gentle fire, until it appear to have attained the proper consistence. Another:-The other things are to be the same; but, not withstanding, instead of the wine, use the strongest white vinegar, and dip into it wool as greasy as can be procured, and then, moistening it with the lees of oil, boil, and pour in the juice of the wild fig-tree, and add Melian alum, and natron, and the flowers of copper, both toasted."
---- Part 6: "Another:-Sprinkle on it dried wakerobin, and add the green bark of the fig-tree, pounding it in the juice: do this with or without wine, and along with honey. Another:-Boiling the shavings of lotus with vinegar (the vinegar should be white); then mix the lees of oil and raw tar-water, and use it as a liniment or wash, and bandage above. These things in powder prevent recent wounds from suppurating, or they may be used for cleansing the sore along with vinegar, or for sponging with wine."
---- Part 7: "And there is another preparation of the same:-The strongest vinegar of a white color, honey, Egyptian alum, the finest natron; having toasted these things gently, pour in a little gall; this cleanses fungous ulcers, renders them hollow, and is not pungent."
---- Part 8: "Of the slender cress in a raw state, of horehound, of each equal parts; of the dried fig, two parts; of linseed, two parts; the juice of the fig. When you use any of these medicines, apply above it compresses wetted in vinegar . . ."
---- Part 9: "The juice of the grape, the strongest vinegar, the flower of copper, natron, the juice of the wild fig-tree. Alum, the most finely levigated, is to be put into the juice of the wild grape, and it is to be put into a red bronze mortar and stirred in the sun, and removed when it appears to have attained proper consistence."
---- Part 10: "Then, having sponged the ulcer and cleansed it, bandage it as before, and compress it a little more.
Next day, wherever the medicine has not been taken in, sprinkle it on, press it down, and bandage. But when you wish to remove the medicine, pour in hot vinegar until it separate, and again do the same things, sponging it away, if necessary."
---- Part 14: "When you have removed the blood, you must not press hard upon the part with the specillum, lest you produce contusion. Bathe with vinegar, and do not allow a clot of blood to remain between the lips of the wounds, and having spread greasy wool with a medicine for bloody wounds, and having carded the woof and made it soft, bind it on, having wetted it with wine and oil."
---- Part 17: "Otherwise coagula of blood will be retained in the incisions and inflammatory ulcers will arise from
them. In all such cases the parts are to be bathed with vinegar, after which they are not to be wetted; neither must the person lie upon the scarifications, but they are to be anointed with some of the medicines for bloody wounds." (http://classics.mit.edu/Hippocrates/ulcers.html)
None of these courses of treatment jibe with the use of apple cider vinegar in the paragraph from Bragg (or any of the similar paragraphs/histories across the internet). Further, I searched Perseus Project for the words "apple cider vinegar" and found nothing. I can find no evidence that the Greeks even had a word for apple cider vinegar, nor that they made vinegar from apple cider to begin with.
My question is: am I missing something? Is Hippocrates' use of ACV just an urban legend given long legs by the health and fitness industry? Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated!
Best,
Scott
Hippocrates, "On the Articulations", Part 86: "The treatment, if no fever be present, consists in the administration of hellebore, but otherwise (it is not to be given, but oxyglyky (decoction of honeycombs and vinegar) is to be given for drink, if required." (http://classics.mit.edu/Hippocrates/artic.html)
Hippocrates, "On Fractures", Part 11: "But if there be no fever, we must give emetics, as has been said, and administer the other remedies which are applicable when the fever is not of a continual type; but if continual fever be present, we must not give strong medicines, but enjoin abstinence from solid food and soups, and give water for drink, and not allow wine but oxyglyky (a composition from vinegar and honey?)." (http://classics.mit.edu/Hippocrates/fractur.html)
Hippocrates, "On Injuries of the Head", Part 14: "And in making the incision you must separate the flesh from the bone where it is united to the membrane (pericranium?) and to the bone, and then fill the whole wound with a tent, which will expand the wound very wide next day with as little pain as possible; and along with the tents apply a cataplasm, consisting of a mass (maza) of fine flour pounded in vinegar, or boiled so as to render it as glutinous as possible. (http://classics.mit.edu/Hippocrates/headinjur.html)
Hippocrates, "On the Regimen of Acute Disease", Part 7: "And further, barley or tares may be infused and boiled in diluted vinegar, stronger than that it could be drunk, and may then be sewed into bladders and applied; and one may bran in like manner."
---- Part 16: "But if it appears advantageous to use a great deal of this drink during the whole course of the disease, one should add to it merely as much vinegar as can just be perceived by the taste, for thus what is prejudicial in it will do the least possible harm, and what is beneficial will do the more good. In a word, the acidity of vinegar agrees rather with those who are troubled with bitter bile, than with those patients whose bile is black; for the bitter principle is dissolved in it and turned to phlegm, by being suspended in it; whereas black bile is fermented, swells up, and is multiplied thereby: for vinegar is a melanogogue. Vinegar is more prejudicial to women than to men, for it creates pains in the uterus."
---- Appendix, Part 20: "If he labors under difficulty of breathing, if it is the summer season, and if he is in the prime of life, and is strong, blood should be abstracted from the arm, and then he should eat hot pieces of bread, dipped in dark wine and oil, drink very little, and labor much, and live on well-fed pork, boiled with vinegar, so that he may be able to endure hard exercises." (http://classics.mit.edu/Hippocrates/acutedis.html)
Hippocrates, "On Ulcers", Part 4: "When the ulcer is clean, but both it and the surrounding parts are inflamed, lentil is to be boiled in wine and finely triturated, and, being mixed with a little oil, it is to be applied as a cataplasm; and the leaves of the hip-tree are to be boiled in water and pounded in a fine powder and made into a cataplasm; and apply below a thin, clean piece of cloth wetted in wine and oil; and when you wish to produce contraction, prepare the leaves of the hip-tree like the lentil, and the cress; wine and finely-powdered linseed are to be mixed together. And this is proper: linseed, and raw chaste-tree, and Melian alum, all these things being macerated in vinegar."
---- Part 5: "Boil the roots of the holmoak in sweet white wine; and when it appears to be properly done, having poured off two parts of the wine, and of the lees of wine as free of water as possible one part; then boil, stirring it, so that it may not be burnt, at a gentle fire, until it appear to have attained the proper consistence. Another:-The other things are to be the same; but, not withstanding, instead of the wine, use the strongest white vinegar, and dip into it wool as greasy as can be procured, and then, moistening it with the lees of oil, boil, and pour in the juice of the wild fig-tree, and add Melian alum, and natron, and the flowers of copper, both toasted."
---- Part 6: "Another:-Sprinkle on it dried wakerobin, and add the green bark of the fig-tree, pounding it in the juice: do this with or without wine, and along with honey. Another:-Boiling the shavings of lotus with vinegar (the vinegar should be white); then mix the lees of oil and raw tar-water, and use it as a liniment or wash, and bandage above. These things in powder prevent recent wounds from suppurating, or they may be used for cleansing the sore along with vinegar, or for sponging with wine."
---- Part 7: "And there is another preparation of the same:-The strongest vinegar of a white color, honey, Egyptian alum, the finest natron; having toasted these things gently, pour in a little gall; this cleanses fungous ulcers, renders them hollow, and is not pungent."
---- Part 8: "Of the slender cress in a raw state, of horehound, of each equal parts; of the dried fig, two parts; of linseed, two parts; the juice of the fig. When you use any of these medicines, apply above it compresses wetted in vinegar . . ."
---- Part 9: "The juice of the grape, the strongest vinegar, the flower of copper, natron, the juice of the wild fig-tree. Alum, the most finely levigated, is to be put into the juice of the wild grape, and it is to be put into a red bronze mortar and stirred in the sun, and removed when it appears to have attained proper consistence."
---- Part 10: "Then, having sponged the ulcer and cleansed it, bandage it as before, and compress it a little more.
Next day, wherever the medicine has not been taken in, sprinkle it on, press it down, and bandage. But when you wish to remove the medicine, pour in hot vinegar until it separate, and again do the same things, sponging it away, if necessary."
---- Part 14: "When you have removed the blood, you must not press hard upon the part with the specillum, lest you produce contusion. Bathe with vinegar, and do not allow a clot of blood to remain between the lips of the wounds, and having spread greasy wool with a medicine for bloody wounds, and having carded the woof and made it soft, bind it on, having wetted it with wine and oil."
---- Part 17: "Otherwise coagula of blood will be retained in the incisions and inflammatory ulcers will arise from
them. In all such cases the parts are to be bathed with vinegar, after which they are not to be wetted; neither must the person lie upon the scarifications, but they are to be anointed with some of the medicines for bloody wounds." (http://classics.mit.edu/Hippocrates/ulcers.html)
None of these courses of treatment jibe with the use of apple cider vinegar in the paragraph from Bragg (or any of the similar paragraphs/histories across the internet). Further, I searched Perseus Project for the words "apple cider vinegar" and found nothing. I can find no evidence that the Greeks even had a word for apple cider vinegar, nor that they made vinegar from apple cider to begin with.
My question is: am I missing something? Is Hippocrates' use of ACV just an urban legend given long legs by the health and fitness industry? Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated!
Best,
Scott