Apothecary ingredients obtained from humans

Among the ingredients from living creatures once used in the old apothecary shops one can include those obtained from humans. Naturally, they were less numerous than those collected or extracted from various species of insects and animals, both local and exotic, but their fame was presumed effects were greater.

§      human fat (Axungia hominis), used as base for unguents between the sixteenth and the eighteenth century,

Early Modern apothecary jars for human fat at the Apothekenmuseum Heidelberg, Germany

§      shavings of human skull (Cranii humani rasura) sometimes employed as calcium supplement

§      mummy powder (Pulvis Mumiae Verae), considered a universal medicine and sold for its weight in gold.

  

18th-century mummy powder (Pulvis Mumiae Verae) from the History of Pharmacy Collection in Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Sometimes pharmacists obtained such products from the corpses of executed prisoners, others - like the mummy powder - were the focus of specialized long-distance trade.

For the animal ingredients see the recent temporary exhibition in Cluj-Napoca entitled "Animals that heal".