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Principles of Toxicology Overview

This document provides a historical overview of the development of toxicology from antiquity to the 21st century. Some of the key figures and developments mentioned include Hippocrates studying plant and metal poisons in ancient Greece, Paracelsus in the Renaissance formulating foundational views of toxicology, pharmacology and therapeutics, the discovery of radioactivity and vitamins leading to animal bioassays in the 20th century, and more recent focuses on genetically modified organisms and studying adverse effects of foreign substances. The document traces the evolution of toxicology as a field from early observations of poisons to the establishment of experimental and regulatory toxicology.

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Selena Moon
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178 views2 pages

Principles of Toxicology Overview

This document provides a historical overview of the development of toxicology from antiquity to the 21st century. Some of the key figures and developments mentioned include Hippocrates studying plant and metal poisons in ancient Greece, Paracelsus in the Renaissance formulating foundational views of toxicology, pharmacology and therapeutics, the discovery of radioactivity and vitamins leading to animal bioassays in the 20th century, and more recent focuses on genetically modified organisms and studying adverse effects of foreign substances. The document traces the evolution of toxicology as a field from early observations of poisons to the establishment of experimental and regulatory toxicology.

Uploaded by

Selena Moon
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF TOXICOLOGY - dose-response relation as a bulwark of

toxicology
ANTIQUITY
• Ellenbog (circa 1480)
• animal venoms and plant extract
- warned the toxicity (Mercury, Lead)
- use for hunting, warfare, and assassination
- published On the Miners' Sickness and Other
• Ebers Papyrus (circa 1500 B.C.) Diseases Miners, 1567

- includes hemlock, aconite, opium, and metals • Bernardino Ramazzini


(lead, copper, and antimony)
- Discourse in the Disease of Workers, 1700
• Book of Job (circa 1400 B.C.)
• Percival Pott's (1775)
- poison arrow (Job 6:4)
- roled of soot in scrotal cancer (chimney sweeps)
• Hippocrates (circa 400 B.C.) - polyaromatic hydrocarbon carcinogenicity

- added a number of poisons and clinical AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT


toxicology principles pertaining to
• Magendie (1783-1885), Orfila (1787-1853),
bioavailability in therapy and overdosage
Bernard (1813-1878)
• Theophrastus (370-286 B.C.)
- laid groundwork for pharmacology,
- includes numerous references to poisonous experimental therapeutics, and occupational
plants in De Historia Plantarum toxicology

• Dioscorides • Orfila

- Greek physicist - Spanish physician


- classify poisons (plant, animal, mineral) - used autopsy material and chemical analysis
- De Materia Medica contains 600 plants systematically as legal proof of poisoning

MIDDLE AGES • Magendie

• Moses ben Maimon, A.D. 1135-1204 - physician and experimental physiologist


- studied the mechanisms of action of emetine and
- include a treatise on the treatment of poisoning strychnine
from insects, snake, and mad dogs o determine the absorption and
- Treatise on Poison and Their Antidotes, 1198 distribution of these compounds in the
RENAISSANCE body

• Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus • Claude Bernard


von Hohenheim-Paracelsus ( 1463-1541) - An Introduction to the Study of Experimental
- Pivotal Medicine
- physician-alchemist • Oswald Schmiedeberg (1838-1921)
- formulated many revolutionary views that
remain integral to the structure of toxicology, - trained student for laboratories of pharmacology
pharmacology, and therapeutics today and toxicology
- focused on chemical entity and held:
• Loius Lewin (1850-1929)
• experimentation
• identification between therapeutic and toxic - focused on narcotics, methanol, glycerol,
properties acrolein, and chloroform
• distinguishing dose of chemicals
• ascernity of degree of specificity of chemicals 20TH CENTURY TOXICOLOGY
and therapeutics or toxic effects • patented medicines
• Wiley Bill in 1906
U.S. pure food and drug laws
• 1890's and early 1900's

- discovery of radioactivity and vitamins


- Led to bioassays (multiple animal studies)

• Archiv fur Toxikologie

- published in Europe for experimental toxicology

• National Institutes of Health

- response to tragic consequences of acute kidney


failure after taking sulfanilamide in glycol
solutions
Initial Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and
Rodenticide Act 1947
- first major bill
Copeland bill, passed in 1938
- second major bill
AFTER WORLD WAR II
• The Delaney clause ( 1958)
• Tragic Thalidomide incident
Rachel Carson's Silent Spring 1962
• International Congress includes:
Europe
South America
Asia
Africa
Australia
21st CENTURY TOXICOLOGY
• Genetically Modified Organisms
• Toxicology

- study of the adverse effects of xenobiotics

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