Panacea (medicine)
A panacea (/pænəˈsiːə/) is any supposed remedy that is claimed (for example) to cure all diseases and prolong life indefinitely. Named after the Greek goddess of universal remedy Panacea, it was in the past sought by alchemists in connection with the elixir of life and the philosopher's stone, a mythical substance that would enable the transmutation of common metals into gold. Through the 18th and 19th centuries, many "patent medicines" were claimed to be panaceas, and they became very big business. The term "panacea" is used in a negative way to describe the overuse of any one solution to solve many different problems, especially in medicine.[1] The word has acquired connotations of snake oil and quackery.[2]
"Cure-all" redirects here. For other uses, see cure all.A panacea (or panaceum) is also a literary term to represent any solution to solve all problems related to a particular issue.[3]
In Greek mythology, Panacea was one of the daughters of the Greek god of medicine Asclepius, along with her four sisters, each of whom performed one aspect of health care:[4]
According to the mythology, Panacea had an elixir or potion with which she was able to heal any human malady, and her name has become interchangeable with the name of the cure itself.[5][2]
History[edit]
Ancient medicine[edit]
Ancient Greek and Roman scholars described various kinds of plants that were called panacea or panaces, such as Opopanax sp., Centaurea sp., Levisticum officinale, Achillea millefolium and Echinophora tenuifolia.[6]
The Cahuilla people of the Colorado Desert region of California used the red sap of the elephant tree (Bursera microphylla) as a panacea.[7]
The Latin genus name of ginseng is Panax, (or "panacea") reflecting Linnean understanding that traditional Chinese medicine used ginseng widely as a cure-all.[8]
In 1581 the Dutch doctor Giles Everard (also known as Gilles Everaerts) published On the Panacea Herb [De herba panacea], a book that implied that tobacco, then growing in popularity after its recent introduction to Europe, was the long-lost ancient panacea. A work attributed to him appeared in English in 1659, entitled Panacea; Or The Universal Medicine: Being a Discovery of the Wonderfull Vertues of Tobacco Taken in a Pipe, with Its Operation and Use Both in Physick and Chyrurgery.[9][10]
