Earth sigillata (pharmacology)
For Roman pottery, see Terra sigillata.
Terra sigillata (sealed earth, in Latin) was a pharmaceutical specialty widely used by the Greeks in the 5th century BC and was the forerunner of modern pharmaceutical specialties.
HistoryTerra sigillata was prepared on a large scale to be distributed to different parts of the known world. These were original tablets from Lemnos Island, the Aegean Sea. Galenic preparation
The way to prepare the Terra sigillata was based on a white clay known at that time as Bolus alba, but today it has been given the name of kaolin. It was stacked with goat blood, as Dioscorides says. Applications
Terra sigillata was used as an antidote for poisons and for the treatment of dysentery, internal ulcers, bleeding, gonorrhea, pestilential fevers, kidney pain and eye infections. Today
This drug was used for almost two thousand years and had many imitations. Today we know from historians, scientists and modern pharmacologists that it was a very effective remedy in many cases for its adsorbent properties that in modern pharmacology corresponds to other drugs registered in several pharmacopoeias, such as kaolin, bentonite, magnesia magma and alumina gel.
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