King of Pontus on the Black Sea and Rome’s great enemy in the East. Fearing poison, he is said to have taken small doses daily until he was immune, and to have compounded the universal antidote that bore his name: the mithridate, forerunner of theriac.
8 Entries in the Materia Medica
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- AgrimonyAgrimonia eupatoria.
- FigFicus carica.
- MithridateThe antidote attributed by legend to Mithridates VI of Pontus, the forerunner of theriac.
- RueRuta graveolens, garden rue.
- TheriacThe great compound antidote of antiquity, with about sixty ingredients in Galen’s formulat
- ViperThe flesh of the viper, Vipera species, dried into troches.
- Water germanderTeucrium scordium, of the same genus as wall germander, which has caused liver failure in
- Wild rueEither the wild form of Ruta graveolens or Syrian rue, Peganum harmala.
