Reptiles and amphibians in Maltese medical folklore

Abstract

Since time immemorial, chemical substances extracted from animals and plants have interested man for a variety of purposes including medicine and magic potions. The medicinal use of a plant or animal was in bygone days indicated by its visible characteristics, so that for example kidney-shaped leaves would be used to treat kidney disorders. Although experimenting unscientifically, early men occasionally discovered a useful drug. The example par excellence is the discovery of digitalis from foxglove extracts in 1775 by Dr. William Withering. Like so many plants, the reptiles and amphibians were also regarded as having magical powers of healing. One famous medicine from China was Tongues of St. Paul and serpent 's eye 258 Ch'an Su composed of dried substances prepared from the secretions of a toad 's parotid glands. Ch'an Su was thought to be valuable in healing some disorders of the heart and blood vessels. Recent chemicals and pharmacological investigations on the parotid and skin secretions of a number of amphibian species has yielded an impressive list of chemical substances among which the most important are adrenalin and bufagin (bufogenin). The latter group of compounds have been found to be pharmacologically related to the digitalis group of drugs important in the treatment of heart failure. Man on the Maltese Islands until relatively recent times set great value to natural chemical substances for use in medicine, very often in association with religious beliefs and folklore. In spite of the limitations of species number, reptiles and amphibians like elsewhere received due notice.