# Diascordium

**Diascordium Fracastorii**

**Known today as.** A confection of water germander with opium, cinnamon, bole, and other drugs.

Kind: Compound  
Poisoning: Opioid poisoning (https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/poisons/opioid)  
Toxic: yes

> **Caution.** Contains opium.

## What was it used for?

Against fluxes and pestilent fevers.

## What does modern science say?

Its opium and astringents would slow a flux.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **morphine**: from the opium in it
- **tannins**: from the tormentil

**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.

**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.

**Standing.** Still in the London Pharmacopoeia of 1721, whose English translator says it was commonly called in prescriptions *Confectio Fracastorii*.

## What lore surrounds it?

Named for its [water germander](https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/water-germander) (*scordium*).

## 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*.
- 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.
- Wikipedia, “Girolamo Fracastoro,” en.wikipedia.org (read 2 October 2026).
- Wikipedia, “Opium,” en.wikipedia.org (read 2 October 2026).
- Wikipedia, “Potentilla erecta,” en.wikipedia.org (read 2 October 2026).
- *Pharmacopoeia Londinensis* (1721).

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

Historical description, not medical advice.