Medical Uses

In antiquity, alcoholic beverages were also used for theraputic purposes. They were found commonly in medical prepartaion. Greeks believed that if they mixed alcohol with oil and honey, they had a remedy that could cure any disease. Since alcohol had properites like painkillers, stimulants, and antiseptics, people believed that they really could cure every disease with alcohol.

Beer was never used in early Greece and it was ignored due to the prejudice against it. Greeks and Romans instead used wine. The organuic acids and enzymes is wine stimulate digestive activity. Ancient Greeks believed that the herbs mixed in the wine would create a medicial wine. The alchohol in the wine extrected the active medicinal propertuies of the herbs. The herbs tasted bitter, and the wine was also a compliment to the herbs.

Wine was a common component of Roman and Greek medicine. It was the only form of alcohol the Romans knew about. When herbs were infused in wine, they had an affect to the human body. Hippocrates was one the most famous practitioners of alcohol based herbal remedies. He created one of the most famous medicinal wine in 400 BC using local herbs. He called it Vermouth.

Vermouth was red wine steeped in an herb called wormwood, which is an herb used to expel intestinal worms and to calm an agitated stomach. The medical name for vermouth is Vinum absinthita. The medicine is made by soaking a handful of wromwood in a gallon of red wine for about a month. Hippocates used Vermouth to help patients with rhuematism, anemia, and mensstrual pains. Ancient Greeks believed that the medicine helped against posion of hemlock and mushrooms. Since some of the herbs are bitter, cinnamon, ginger, or licorice would be added to sweeten the taste.