What was arsenic used for in ancient times?

Arsenic was first used as an auxiliary drug to treat syphilis or tuberculosis, and was later developed to make pesticides or rodenticides. However, due to its extreme toxicity, arsenic has long been regarded as a killing weapon. For more than 2000 years, arsenic has been associated with words such as "poisoning" and "sudden death", so it is notorious.

Although arsenic is undoubtedly a "first-class" poison, it is not without its merits. Arsenic can play many roles in treating human diseases.

Historically, arsenic compounds have long been used to treat sleeping sickness, tuberculosis, skin diseases and other stubborn diseases. Samuel Waxman, a professor of clinical medicine and oncologist at Mount Sinai Medical College in new york, USA, said: "People are always afraid of arsenic poisoning and think it is the cause of tumors.

But back to the time of Hippocrates (Hippocrates was a famous doctor in ancient Greece who lived from 460 BC to 370 BC and was called the father of medicine), it was used to treat diseases in one form or another. The medicinal peak of arsenic was from the end of 19 to the beginning of the 20th century, and almost all pharmacists used this medicine. "

In Styria in the 0/9th century A.D./KLOC-now southern Austria and northern Slovenia, farmers there often took a certain dose of arsenic to keep fit.

In Britain in the17th century, various compounds of arsenic were used to prepare preservatives; Arsenic fanamin, an arsenic compound discovered in 1909, has been used to treat spirochete infections such as syphilis and yaws for a long time, and it was not replaced by penicillin until the 1940s.

Extended data:

Nowadays, the use of arsenic has been strictly controlled, but arsenic is still indispensable in the treatment of some parasitic diseases. In addition to the medical field, arsenic is also an important element in the semiconductor industry, which is mostly used in gallium arsenic compounds. In recent years, with the theory of traditional Chinese medicine being more and more widely recognized.

The use of arsenic in traditional Chinese medicine to treat some tumor diseases, especially acute spinal leukemia, has also been confirmed. Due to the mutation of genetic factors in the body, patients with this blood disease will have protein abnormality, and the normal production and death of white blood cells will be disturbed. The US Food and Drug Administration confirmed.

Arsenic trioxide can make the deformed protein have the ability of self-destruction, thus making the growth of white blood cells return to normal. Waxman said: "It can be said that this drug may be the best drug form for the foreseeable treatment of this leukemia."

Some doctors also believe that arsenic trioxide has less side effects on patients than conventional chemotherapy. Arsenic trioxide has been increasingly used in clinical practice to treat cancers, such as lymphoma, prostate cancer or uterine cancer.

Baidu encyclopedia-arsenic