Litharge
Lithargyrum, “silver stone”
- Known today as
- Lead monoxide, a byproduct of refining silver.
- Kind
- Mineral, in 1 older authority
- Constituents
- lead oxide
- Poisoning
- Mercury, arsenic, lead, and antimony
- Earliest authority here
- Menecrates
- In other databases
- Wikidata search
Caution. Poisonous.
Litharge: what was it used for?
The base of plasters, above all the diachylon plaster, and of drying ointments.
Litharge: what does modern science say?
Poisonous; its plasters were used into the twentieth century.
Litharge: is it poisonous?
Yes, in some form or dose. Poisonous. Its poisoning is mercury, arsenic, lead, and antimony: Minutes to hours for a large dose; months or years for the slow poisoning of the trades. Historical description, not medical advice; in a poisoning, call a poison centre.
Pharmacognosy & Toxicology
- Constituents
- Mechanism
- As white lead.
- Toxic dose
- Chronic.
- Syndrome
- Mercury, arsenic, lead, and antimony
- Standing
- No medicinal use; the lead plaster of the pharmacopoeias is gone.
- Needleman, H. (2004). Annual Review of Medicine 55. Book, not indexed
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.
Litharge: what did the older authorities say?
- Menecrates
- The diachylon plaster of litharge and oil was credited to Menecrates, physician to the emperor Tiberius.
Sources
- Dioscorides, De materia medica V. Primary text
Verification
- Checked
- October 1, 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
- Sources
- 2 cited: 1 primary text, 1 book, not indexed.
- 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
- Chicago
“Litharge.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified September 25, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/litharge.
- MLA
“Litharge.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 25 Sept. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/litharge. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Litharge. (2026, September 25). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 8, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/litharge
Club members keep entries on a shelf with private notes, print the plates as cards, and receive an entry by email each week. Create a free account before January 1, 2027 and all of it is yours for good. About the Club
See Also
Poisoned alike: mercury, arsenic, lead, and antimony
Orpiment and realgar · James’s powder · Passarino’s white powder · Iron and steel · Quicksilver · Cinnabar · Verdigris · Aurum potabile · the syndrome, with all of them →
Sharing lead oxide
Drawing on the same sources: Dioscorides, Needleman
Madonna lily · Lavender · Mandrake · White lead · the bibliography →
Nearby in the alphabet
Liverwort, or hepatica (Hepatica nobilis (syn) · Lion’s mane (A single clump of hanging spines on hardwood trees) · Livid pinkgill (of broadleaf woods) · Licorice (The root of Glycyrrhiza glabra) · Lodestone (naturally magnetic iron ore) · Letters from Heaven · Long pepper (The catkin-like fruit of Piper longum) · Lesser bean-trefoil (Anagyris foetida, a Mediterranean shrub)
Historical description, not medical advice.