Vikos doctors were folk

healers Alternative medicine is any practice that aims to achieve the healing effects of medicine despite lacking biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or evidence from clinical trials. Complementary medicine (CM), complementary and alte ...

or practical medical practitioners from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

area of

Zagori Zagori ( el, Ζαγόρι; rup, Zagori), is a region and a municipality in the Pindus mountains in Epirus, in northwestern Greece. The seat of the municipality is the village Asprangeloi. It has an area of some and contains 46 villages known as ...

in the 18-19th century.

Etymology

The

word ἰατρός (''iatrós'', doctor or healer) is often translated as

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 ...

. Vikos doctors ( el, βικογιατροί) were local doctors practicing a form of

herbal medicine Herbal medicine (also herbalism) is the study of pharmacognosy and the use of medicinal plants, which are a basis of traditional medicine. With worldwide research into pharmacology, some herbal medicines have been translated into modern remed ...

in the 18th and 19th century.

History

The Vikos doctorsΒασίλης Μηνακάκης ‘Ζαγοροχώρια’ (Vasilis Minakakis ‘Zagorochoria’) Explorer, Athens, 2006 hailed from the area of central

and particularly from the villages of

Tsepelovo Tsepelovo ( el, Τσεπέλοβο) is a village in the Zagori region (Epirus region). It stands at a height of 1,200 meters in a panoramic location on the mountain range of Tymfi. It is the biggest of the 45 villages of Zagori and it was the seat ...

, ,

Papingo Papingo ( el, Πάπιγκο, also transcribed as Papigko, Papigo) is a former community (1919-2010) in the Ioannina regional unit, Epirus, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform (the so-called Kallikratis Law) it has become part of the ...

Skamneli Skamneli ( el, Σκαμνέλι) is a village in the Zagori region ( Epirus region), 54 km north of Ioannina. It is built in the fringes of mountain Tymfi (Mt Tymphe), at a height of 1160 m. Name The name "Skamneli" is of uncertain origi ...

, Koukouli, Monodendri and

Kapesovo Kapesovo ( el, Καπέσοβο) is a village in the Zagori region (Epirus region), it is 43 km north of Ioannina. The name Kapesovo is Slavic and means garden. The village used to be more south near Baya (Kipi), where many vegetables were g ...

. They used local herbs to heal ailments of people as well as of livestock. These herbs and parts of some other plants were being collected from the

Vikos Gorge The Vikos Gorge or Vikos Canyon ( gr, Φαράγγι του Βίκου) is a gorge in the Pindus Mountains of north-western Greece. It lies on the southern slopes of Mount Tymphe with a length of about 32 km, depth ranging from 120 to 1350 ...

, hence the attribution. They were descendants of an ancient craft who in the Ottoman period attained great fame. Some even served as advisors in the courts of the

Ottoman Sultan The sultans of the Ottoman Empire ( tr, Osmanlı padişahları), who were all members of the Ottoman dynasty (House of Osman), ruled over the transcontinental empire from its perceived inception in 1299 to its dissolution in 1922. At its hei ...

s. One named Paschaloglou from

even became a confidente of four

Sultans Sultan (; ar, سلطان ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it c ...

: Abdul Hamit I, Suleiman III, Mustafa IV and Mahmut II. One of the herbs used was the nightshade ''

Atropa belladonna ''Atropa belladonna'', commonly known as belladonna or deadly nightshade, is a toxic perennial herbaceous plant in the nightshade family Solanaceae, which also includes tomatoes, potatoes, and eggplant (aubergine). It is native to Europe, North ...

'' for cholic

spasm A spasm is a sudden involuntary contraction of a muscle, a group of muscles, or a hollow organ such as the bladder. A spasmodic muscle contraction may be caused by many medical conditions, including dystonia. Most commonly, it is a muscle c ...

s. The drug

atropine Atropine is a tropane alkaloid and anticholinergic medication used to treat certain types of nerve agent and pesticide poisonings as well as some types of slow heart rate, and to decrease saliva production during surgery. It is typically given i ...

has been extracted from this plant which is medicinally used for this purpose to our own day. It is also said that two Vikos doctors, Pantazis Exarchou and Zonias, used fungi to treat infected wounds well before

penicillin Penicillins (P, PCN or PEN) are a group of β-lactam antibiotics originally obtained from ''Penicillium'' moulds, principally '' P. chrysogenum'' and '' P. rubens''. Most penicillins in clinical use are synthesised by P. chrysogenum using ...

was discovered by

Alexander Fleming Sir Alexander Fleming (6 August 1881 – 11 March 1955) was a Scottish physician and microbiologist, best known for discovering the world's first broadly effective antibiotic substance, which he named penicillin. His discovery in 1928 of w ...

. Other plants with suspected or known medicinal properties were also in their repertory and grow abundantly in the area, among them the lemon balm ''

Melissa officinalis Lemon balm (''Melissa officinalis'') is a perennial herbaceous plant in the mint family and native to south-central Europe, the Mediterranean Basin, Iran, and Central Asia, but now naturalised elsewhere. It grows to a maximum height of . The l ...

'', St John’s Wort ''

Hypericum perforatum ''Hypericum perforatum'', known as St. John's wort, is a flowering plant in the family Hypericaceae and the type species of the genus ''Hypericum''. Possibly a hybrid between '' H. maculatum'' and '' H. attenuatum'', the species can be found a ...

'', absinth ''

Artemisia absinthium ''Artemisia absinthium'' (wormwood, grand wormwood, absinthe, absinthium, absinthe wormwood, mugwort, wermout, wermud, wormit, wormod) is a species of ''Artemisia'', native to temperate regions of Eurasia and North Africa, and widely naturalized ...

'' and the elder bush ''

Sambucus nigra ''Sambucus nigra'' is a species complex of flowering plants in the family Adoxaceae native to most of Europe. Common names include elder, elderberry, black elder, European elder, European elderberry, European black elderberry and tramman (Isle ...

References

{{Villages of Zagori History of medicine Traditional healthcare occupations Zagori Healthcare in Greece

Etymology

History

See also

References