Opodeldoc is a medical plaster or
liniment invented, or at least named, by the
German Renaissance
The German Renaissance, part of the Northern Renaissance, was a cultural and artistic movement that spread among German thinkers in the 15th and 16th centuries, which developed from the Italian Renaissance. Many areas of the arts and scienc ...
physician
A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...
Paracelsus in the 1500s. In modern form opodeldoc is a mixture of
soap
Soap is a salt of a fatty acid used in a variety of cleansing and lubricating products. In a domestic setting, soaps are surfactants usually used for washing, bathing, and other types of housekeeping. In industrial settings, soaps are us ...
in
alcohol, to which
camphor and sometimes a number of
herbal essences, most notably
wormwood, are added.
Origins
In his ''Bertheonea Sive Chirurgia Minor'' published in 1603, Paracelsus mentioned "oppodeltoch" twice, but with uncertain ingredients.
As to the origin of the name,
Kurt Peters speculated that it was coined by Paracelsus from syllables from the words "''opo''ponax, b''del''lium, and aristol''och''ia." ''
Opoponax'' is a variety of
myrrh; ''
bdellium
Bdellium (also bdellion or false myrrh) is a semi-transparent oleo-gum resin extracted from ''Commiphora wightii'' plants of India, and from ''Commiphora africana'' trees growing in sub-saharan Africa. According to Pliny the best quality came f ...
'' is ''
Commiphora wightii'', which produces a similar resin; and ''
Aristolochia
''Aristolochia'' () is a large plant genus with over 500 species that is the type genus of the family Aristolochiaceae. Its members are commonly known as birthwort, pipevine or Dutchman's pipe and are widespread and occur in the most diverse clim ...
'' is a widely distributed
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...
which includes ''A. pfeiferi'', ''A. rugosa'' and ''A. trilobata'' that are used in folk medicine to cure snakebites. The name suggests that these aromatic plants may have figured in Paracelsus's recipe.
[Burton R. Pollin, "Poe’s Literary Use of 'Oppodeldoc' and Other Patent Medicines", Poe Studies, December 1971, vol. IV, no. 2]
4:30-32
/ref>
In his ''Medicina Militaris'' of 1620, German military physician Raymund Minderer ("Mindererus"; 1570-1621) praised the Paracelsus compound as a plaster, good for wounds. Minderer compared it to his own variant, which set more like sealing wax. Opodeldoc and Paracelsus were acknowledged in English no later than 1646, in Sir Thomas Browne's popular and influential '' Pseudodoxia Epidemica''.
Paracelsus's recipe is completely unrelated to later preparations of the same name. By the second printing of the Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia in 1722 the name applied to a soap-based liniment. Such a liniment in patent form, sold by John Newbery's company in Great Britain "ever since A.D. 1786", was called "Dr. Steer's Opodeldoc". Produced for decades, the "Dr. Steer" preparation had been successfully imported into the U.S., and was common enough there to rank as one of the eight patent medicines to be analyzed (although not condemned) by the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy in 1824.Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wid ...
used "Oppodeldoc" as a pseudonym
A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individu ...
for a character in the short story " The Literary Life of Thingum Bob, Esq."
Modern usage
The Pharmacopoeia of the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
(U.S.P.) gives a recipe for opodeldoc that contains:
* Powdered soap, 60 grams;
* Camphor, 45 grams;
* Oil of rosemary
''Salvia rosmarinus'' (), commonly known as rosemary, is a shrub with fragrant, evergreen, needle-like leaves and white, pink, purple, or blue flowers, native plant, native to the Mediterranean Region, Mediterranean region. Until 2017, it was kn ...
, 10 milliliters;
* Alcohol, 700 milliliters;
* Water, enough to make 1000 milliliters
As late as the early 1990s 'Epideldoc' (sic) was compounded on request by several pharmacists in the Northwest of England.
References
Ointments
{{Pharma-stub