Diascordium
Diascordium Fracastorii
- Known today as
- A confection of water germander with opium, cinnamon, bole, and other drugs.
- Kind
- Compound, in 1 older authority
- Constituents
- morphine, tannins
- Poisoning
- Opioid poisoning
- Earliest authority here
- Girolamo Fracastoro (c. 1478–1553)
Revised October 3, 2026: Checked against its sources, each read in full, in part, or in its abstract. Version 1, first published September 25, 2026.
Caution. Contains opium.
Diascordium: what was it used for?
Against fluxes and pestilent fevers.
Diascordium: what does modern science say?
Its opium and astringents would slow a flux.
Diascordium: is it poisonous?
Yes, in some form or dose. Contains opium. Its poisoning is opioid poisoning: Minutes to an hour. Historical description, not medical advice; in a poisoning, call a poison centre.
Pharmacognosy & Toxicology
- Constituents
- Mechanism
- The opium stopped the flux and brought sleep, and the tormentil, rich in tannin, was an astringent; Culpeper gave it even to young children, and the London College still kept it in its pharmacopoeia of 1721.
- Checked against ChEMBL
- morphine: ChEMBL’s curated mechanism: agonist Mu-type opioid receptor.
- Toxic dose
- Culpeper gave ten grains to young children and a dram or more to the old; Fracastoro put a dram of it into his last remedy for pestilent fevers.
- Syndrome
- Opioid poisoning
- Standing
- Still in the London Pharmacopoeia of 1721, whose English translator says it was commonly called in prescriptions Confectio Fracastorii.
- Pharmacopoeia Londinensis (1721). Read in part · the text read
Constituent names open the compound’s record at PubChem, and “ChEMBL” beside a name opens its record at ChEMBL, the European Bioinformatics Institute’s database of bioactive molecules. Where a mechanism line was checked against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37, read 1 October 2026), the check is shown with the measured value and its source paper, or says plainly that nothing has been measured. Doses are as the references give them, for description only; this is not medical advice. Each source carries the result of its check against Crossref, PubMed, or the authority’s page: see Verification.
Diascordium: what lore surrounds it?
Named for its water germander (scordium).
The Recipe
The recipe: 4 ingredients, each linked to its entry. For Club members. Create a free account or sign in.
Diascordium: what did the older authorities say?
- Girolamo Fracastoro
- The Veronese physician gives “our Diascordium” in his chapter on pestilent fevers in De contagione (1546), and the London College’s English dispensatory of 1727 calls it originally his prescription.
Sources
- Fracastoro, G. (1546). De contagione. Read in part · the text read
- Royal College of Physicians of London (1727). The Dispensatory of the Royal College of Physicians in London [the Pharmacopoeia Londinensis in English, with notes], 2nd ed. London: R. Knaplock et al. Read in part · the text read
- Wikipedia, “Girolamo Fracastoro,” en.wikipedia.org (read 2 October 2026). Read in full · the text read
- Wikipedia, “Opium,” en.wikipedia.org (read 2 October 2026). Read in part · the text read
- Wikipedia, “Potentilla erecta,” en.wikipedia.org (read 2 October 2026). Read in full · the text read
Verification
- Checked
- October 1, 2026, and October 3, 2026
- Passes
- Every sentence read against its sources, in the pass over the remaining 343 entries
- The Standing line checked against the authority it names (EMA, WHO, FDA, CITES, Commission E)
- Every dated or regulatory claim checked by category across the database
- The mechanism read against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37): curated mechanisms and measured activity
- Every source read, in full, in part, or in its abstract, and every sentence checked against what was read (October 3, 2026)
- Sources
- 6 cited: 2 read in full, 4 read in part.
- Corrections
- None were needed.
What was checked, how, and what was found is set out on the Verification page. A checked source is one whose record was found; it does not make the entry medical advice.
Cite This Entry
Version 1 · first published September 25, 2026 · last revised October 3, 2026
- Chicago
“Diascordium.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified October 3, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/diascordium.
- MLA
“Diascordium.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 3 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/diascordium. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Diascordium. (2026, October 3). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 8, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/diascordium
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See Also
Poisoned alike: opioid poisoning
Dover’s powder · Theriac · Laudanum · Paregoric · Mithridate · Opium poppy · Nepenthe · the syndrome, with all of them →
Sharing morphine, tannins
Euphrasia officinalis · Succisa pratensis · Corylus avellana · Potentilla reptans
Drawing on the same sources: Wikipedia
Nearby in the alphabet
Diatrion piperion (with aniseed and ginger) · Diaphenicon (with turpeth, scammony, and spices) · Dill (Anethum graveolens) · Dittany (Origanum dictamnus, famous in antiquity for drawing out arrows) · Diacatholicon (based on senna, rhubarb, cassia, and tamarind with various seeds)
Historical description, not medical advice.