The Croatian Translation of Flos Medicinae: From Health Instructions with Medicinal Plants to Contemporary Phytotherapy.

Medieval European medicine relied on monasteries where ancient medical works were transcribed. Trade routes to the East and the influence of Arab medicine, which supplemented the knowledge of Greco-Roman physicians, enabled the foundation and development of the Salerno Medical School, whose most famous work is Flos medicinae: Regimen sanitatis Salernitanum. This medical textbook, written in verse and drawn up on the basis of ancient sources and empirical experiences of Salerno physicians, contains rules on how to preserve health, on diseases and the use of medicinal plants for medicinal purposes. The work was originally written in Latin, and was translated into Croatian by Franciscan Father Emerik Pavic' (1768). It was the first medical book in the Croatian language. This paper provides an insight into the importance of Regimen sanitatis Salernitanum in medieval medicine and its influence on European medical literature through many translations, commentaries and analyses. In this context, ten recipes from the Croatian translation of Flos medicinae were researched and analysed which contain medicinal plants most of which grow in Croatia, and which were in use at that time: fig, fennel, anise, mallow, peppermint, sage, rue, nettle, celandine and willow. Most of the listed herbal drugs are used in contemporary phytotherapy and some of them have the potential for further research. The paper also deals with the particularities of the Croatian translation of this medical textbook, which can be used for further multidisciplinary research involving medicinal and pharmaceutical historians, botanists and philologists.

Overview of Dioscorides' recipes in Croatian books of folk recipes.

The aim of this paper is to present an overview of Dioscorides' recipes from his work De materia medica which are found in Croatian folk medicine preserved in books of folk recipes called ljekaruse. The particularities of five published and analysed Croatian books of folk recipes from the 17 th and 18 th century are examined. Recipes with drugs of herbal and animal origin, which are most often mentioned in Croatian books of folk recipes, and which were available in folk medicine at the time, are compared with those from Dioscorides' work. Many herbal drugs described in books of folk recipes are today used in contemporary phytotherapy, and modern biomedical research reveals new bioactive substances and confirms new and potential biological activities in medicinal plants used in folk medicine, which is the basis for further study of De materia medica by Dioscorides and ethnomedicinal collections. Croatian books of folk recipes are a valuable resource for multidisciplinary study, including for medicinal and pharmaceutical historians, philologists and ethnologists.

Adolf Thierry and the first pharmaceutical factory in Southeast Europe.

The paper explores the beginnings of pharmaceutical industry development in Croatia and the establishment of the first pharmaceutical factory in Southeast Europe. Adolf Thierry de Chateauvieux (St. Pölten, 1854 - Pregrada, 1920), a nobleman hailing from France, immigrated to Croatia at the end of the 19 th century. He bought the Angjelu cuvaru ( Guardian Angel ) pharmacy (1892) in the small town of Pregrada and established the first pharmaceutical factory (1894) in this part of Europe. The factory had an equipped laboratory, a production facility, a storage room for raw materials and balsams, a room for packaging and shipping finished products and a commercial office. Production was mainly based on herbal remedies. The most famous were Thierry's Balsam and Thierry's Centifolia Ointment, both registered and patented in London (1900). By virtue of Adolf Thierry's entrepreneurial spirit and skilful product advertisement, his medicinal preparations were distributed across Europe, America, India and Africa, a testament to which is the well-preserved and researched documentation.

The history of pharmacy studies in Croatia.

The first study of pharmacy on Croatian territory was founded in the early 19th century (1806-1813). Vicencio Dandolo (1758-1819), a pharmacist from Venice who was Napoleon's governor of Dalmatia, established a lyceum in Zadar in 1806. It included education for pharmacists. The Lyceum (later the Central School) was closed in 1811. The founding of the modern University of Zagreb (1874) and its Department of Mathematics and Natural Sciences (1876) created the conditions for the development of university education for pharmacists. The study of pharmacy was introduced at the University of Zagreb in 1882 through the efforts of the Croatian-Slavonian Pharmaceutical Association and the professors of the Faculty of Philosophy. The study went through a series of reforms. The most significant one came with the introduction of the four-year study of pharmacy and the establishment of the Pharmacy Department of the Faculty of Philosophy (1928). The independent Faculty of Pharmacy (today's Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry) was founded at the University of Zagreb in 1942. Since 1989, it has had two separate studies (Pharmacy and Medical Biochemistry).

The original Croatian pharmacopoeia from 1901.

The second edition of the Croato-Slavonian Pharmacopoeia was published in Zagreb in 1901. As the original scientific work of two university professors, Gustav Janecek and Julije Domac, the Pharmacopoeia had strong scientific foundations and introduced a number of innovations. For the first time, a pharmacopoeia prescribed optical rotation for the examination of essential oils, introduced the quantitative analysis of active ingredients in galenic preparations, standardized the boiling points at the atmospheric pressure of 760 mm Hg, and was the only one to prescribe antidotes for herbal drugs and preparations which may cause poisoning. It received extremely positive reviews from the most prominent European pharmaceutical experts. It was written in two languages, Latin and Croatian, and had a wider significance, since it reflected the aspirations of the Croatian people for independence.

The first independent pharmacognosy institute in the world and its founder Julije Domac (1853-1928).

The aim of this article is to describe the foundation and development of the first distinct Institute of Pharmacognosy in the world and to provide a biography of its founder Julije Domac. The Institute was founded in 1896 as a separate institution at the University of Zagreb, Croatia, part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the time. In other European university centers, pharmacognosy institutes were founded together with pharmacology, botany, pharmaceutical or general chemistry. Julije Domac (1853-1928) graduated pharmacy from the University of Vienna (1874) and received his Ph.D. from the University of Graz (1880) with a paper elucidating the structure of hexene and mannitol obtained from manna. He lectured pharmacognosy at the University of Zagreb (1887-1924), wrote chemistry and pharmacognosy textbooks, and co-wrote the Croatian-Slavonian Pharmacopoeia.