The ‘Green Pigment’ in the Treatment of Wounds: a Comparison between Egyptian Medical Papyrus and Hippocratic Treatises on the Use of Verdigris

Abstract

  The comparative study of Edwin Smith, Hearst and Ebers papyrus with the Hippocratic treatises, especially De ulceribus, shows the common use of verdigris in the treatment of wounds difficult to heal, in probable necrosis. The same datum emerges in the Hellenic tradition of the myths of Phormion, Telephus and Iphiclus, linked to the medicine of the temples. The modern biology has observed the antiseptic properties of copper oxide.