# Coffee (Coffea arabica)

*Arabic *qahwah*; Italian *caffè**

**Known today as.** The roasted seeds of *Coffea arabica*; the drink began in Yemen, reached Istanbul by the early sixteenth century, and came to Europe through Venetian merchants.

Kind: Food & Drink  
Qualities: Cold and dry, by Rosée’s handbill; Lémery kept it from those of “thick and hot Blood.”

## What was it used for?

Sold first as a medicine: against drowsiness, for the head, the stomach, and the dropsy, and to dry up rheums.

## What does modern science say?

Caffeine is a true stimulant; large studies link moderate coffee drinking with lower risk of several diseases.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **caffeine**: about 85 mg a cup, in one study
- **chlorogenic acid**: 
- **cafestol**: raises cholesterol in unfiltered coffee

**Mechanism.** Caffeine blocks the adenosine receptors of the brain, where adenosine builds up the longer one stays awake; its half-life in healthy adults is three to seven hours. Rosée warned that it “will hinder sleep for 3 or 4 hours.”

**Dose.** Lethal doses are over 10 g a day for an adult, against a usual intake of under 500 mg.

**Standing.** The umbrella review of 2017 found the largest relative reduction in risk, all-cause mortality included, at three to four cups a day; by the reference article’s account, the European Food Safety Authority found up to 400 mg a day to raise no safety concerns for non-pregnant adults.

## What lore surrounds it?

London’s first coffee house opened in 1652, and a pamphlet of 1674, *The Women’s Petition Against Coffee*, complained that by “Drying up the Radical Moisture” it left husbands “as unfruitful as those Desarts whence that unhappy Berry is said to be brought.”

## What did the older authorities say?

**Pasqua Rosée.** The merchant’s servant who ran London’s first coffee house printed a handbill, *The Vertue of the Coffee Drink*, listing its cures.

## Sources

- Rosée, P. (c. 1652). *The Vertue of the Coffee Drink*.
- *The Women’s Petition Against Coffee* (1674).
- “Pasqua Rosée.” *Wikipedia* (read 2 October 2026).
- “History of coffee.” *Wikipedia* (read 2 October 2026).
- “Caffeine.” *Wikipedia* (read 2 October 2026).
- “Cafestol.” *Wikipedia* (read 2 October 2026).
- “Chlorogenic acid.” *Wikipedia* (read 2 October 2026).
- Lémery, L. (1745). *A Treatise of All Sorts of Foods, both Animal and Vegetable; also of Drinkables*, trans. D. Hay. London: T. Osborne.
- Poole, R., et al. (2017). “Coffee consumption and health: umbrella review.” *BMJ* 359.

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*Coffee.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-03. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/coffee

Historical description, not medical advice.