Drakontion, Drakontaia Mikre, Aron.

In antiquity this plant was used as a remedy for lung diseases and later as a stomach cleanser and appetite stimulant. It was supposed to protect against snake-bite and heal wounds as a compress.

“Dioscorides’s work is the authoritative source on the materia medica of antiquity. He described over six hundred plants and plant principles. His De materia medica was first printed in Greek by Aldus Manutius in 1499” (Garrison-Morton 1786). The oldest (sixth century) and most valuable manuscript copy of the Dioscorides text is the Viennese Anicia Juliana Codex. Other early manuscript versions of the work are held in the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York, in the Bibliothèque National, and in the library of St. Mark’s in Venice.

DIOSCORIDES ANAZARBEUS PEDANIUS (B. CA. 40 AD). DE MATERIA MEDICA.
Anicia Juliana Codex. Codex Vindobonensis medicus graecus 1. Facsimile.
(Washington University, Becker Library)