Britannica
Sources used in this answer
How many simple and compound drugs were collected in The Canon of Medicine?
Created from Britannica articles
using AI.
AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Avicenna
The title page of the 1556 edition of Avicenna's The Canon of Medicine (Al-Qanun fi al-Tibb). This edition (sometimes called the 1556 Basel edition) was translated by medieval scholar Gerard of Cremona.
In The Canon of Medicine, Avicenna provided a comprehensive medical compendium that included approximately 760 simple and compound drugs.1
These substances were detailed across two specific sections of the work: Book II, which served as a "Materia Medica," and Book V, which focused on "Compound Drugs" such as electuaries, theriacs, cathartics, and mithridates. These entries were designed to elaborate upon the humoral pathology established by the Greek physician Galen of Pergamum.1