Sugar
Saccharum
- Known today as
- Cane sugar, Saccharum officinarum.
- Kind
- Food & Drink, in 1 older authority
- Constituents
- sucrose
- Earliest authority here
- Pliny (AD 23/24–79)
- In other databases
- GBIF search · Wikidata search
Revised October 1, 2026: An older authority added from a text read in full. Version 1, first published September 25, 2026.
Sugar: what was it used for?
A medicine before a food: for the chest and throat, in syrups, conserves, and the sugared spices.
Sugar: what does modern science say?
No medicinal effect beyond its use as a sweetener and preservative.
Pharmacognosy & Toxicology
- Constituents
- Mechanism
- Sugar draws water from bacteria by osmosis, which is the basis of sugar-paste dressings for wounds, used again in Africa and in some British hospitals; and oral rehydration solution, sugar and salt in water, has saved more lives than any drug since 1978.
- Toxic dose
- The harms are of the diet: dental decay, obesity, and diabetes.
- Standing
- Oral rehydration salts are on the WHO list of essential medicines.
- Topham, J. (2002). “Why do some cavity wounds treated with honey or sugar paste heal without scarring?” Journal of Wound Care 11. Verified against its record · doi:10.12968/jowc.2002.11.2.26372
- Victora, C. G., et al. (2000). “Reducing deaths from diarrhoea through oral rehydration therapy.” Bulletin of the World Health Organization 78. Standard reference work
The abstract of each source, beneath its citation. For Club members. About the Club or sign in.
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.
Sugar: what lore surrounds it?
So much a part of the apothecary’s stock that the French said of a helpless man that he was “like an apothecary without sugar.”
Used in These Compounds
Sugar is an ingredient of 3 compound medicines in the database. For Club members. Create a free account or sign in.
Sugar: what did the older authorities say?
- Pliny
- Sugar occupies a single short chapter: “Arabia, too, produces sugar; but that of India is the most esteemed. This substance is a kind of honey, which collects in reeds, white, like gum, and brittle to the teeth. The larger pieces are about the size of a filbert; it is only employed, however, in medicine.”
Sources
- Mintz, S. W. (1985). Sweetness and Power. Verified against its record · doi:10.1558/ppc.32778
- Pliny the Elder, Natural History 12.17, trans. J. Bostock & H. T. Riley (1855), Perseus Digital Library. 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
- Each quotation from the older authorities checked word for word against the text, read in full
- Sources
- 4 cited: 2 verified against its record, 1 primary text, 1 standard reference work. 3 with the abstract on file.
- 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 1, 2026
- Chicago
“Sugar.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified October 1, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/sugar.
- MLA
“Sugar.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 1 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/sugar. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Sugar. (2026, October 1). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 8, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/sugar
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
Sharing sucrose
Also in Pliny the Elder
Sweet almond, oil of in Pliny the Elder · Snapdragon in Pliny the Elder · Sweet flag in Pliny the Elder · Snail in Pliny the Elder · everything Pliny the Elder names →
Nearby in the alphabet
Sulfur (Brimstone) · Storax calamite (packed in reeds (calami) for export) · Sumac · The stole (the sign of his sacred office) · Stinkhorn · St. Zacharias cross (each standing for a Latin invocation against the plague)
Historical description, not medical advice.