A medieval narcotic cough syrup

Paper; Egypt; 10th–13th century; Judaeo-Arabic

T-S AS 148.22

This small fragment preserves a medical prescription for cough linctus. The ingredients listed are common varieties of vegetable substances, like dodder of thyme, pine nuts, Egyptian clover and onion. However the active ingredient was another of the ingredients listed: opium. Opium was often used as a narcotic and painkiller in medieval Egypt. It was prescribed as a cough sedative – as with modern codeine-based cough syrups – and for helping patients deal with toothache, problematic sore throats and colics.

Extended captions