Pivo i vino u antici – blagotvoran lijek ili božja kazna?

Different types of alcoholic beverages such as wine and beer were used in ancient times for various medicinal purposes. Being the oldest and probably the most widely used drugs, they were known to have some therapeutic value, in addition to the vital part they played in the daily life of people. Ethanol is produced by fermentation of a variety of plants and consumed either in a diluted form or concentrated by distillation to concoct alcoholic beverages. Beer made of fermented barley is an alcoholic drink that was believed to contain a spirit or a god. it is a drink of relatively low alcohol content with supernatural properties. The same was believed for wine. Considered to be divine, these beverages were the long sought elixirs of life and appeared in religious ceremonies, in mythology, and in social meals, such as the Greek symposia. in addition, these alcoholic drinks were considered to be a remedy for practically every dis¬ease and, therefore, were a common ingredient in ancient prescriptions. They were used as anaesthetics that dull the pain, as stimulants, as analgesics, as antiseptics to cleanse wounds and relieve pain, as emetics, as digestives, as antidotes for plant poisoning, for bites and stings, and as purifiers. However, we should not overlook the harmful effects of alcohol abuse such as drunkenness, chronic liver disease and, in modern terminology, infirmities that included pancreatitis, cardiomyopathy, peripheral neuropathy, dementia, and central nervous system disorders.U antička su se vremena različite vrste alkoholnih pića poput piva i vina koristile u medi¬cinske svrhe. Za njih se znalo da imaju terapijska svojstva, a usto su imale važnu ulogu u svakodnevnom životu ljudi. Etanol nastaje fermentacijom različitih vrsta biljaka, a konzumira se razvodnjen ili koncen¬triran destilacijom te pripremljen u obliku alkoholnih pića. Ječmeno pivo najstarije je znano alkoholno piće za koje se smatralo da ga nastanjuje duh ili božansko biće. riječ je o piću s razmjerno niskom količinom alkohola i nadnaravnim svojstvima. slično se vjerovalo i za vino. Ta su se pića smatrala božanskim eliksirima života te su se pojavljivala u religijskim ceremonijama, mitologiji, i gozbama poput grčkih symposia. osim toga, smatralo se da mogu liječiti gotovo svaku bolest, pa su bila česti sastojci antičkih recepata. rabila su se kao anestetici da se umrtvi bol, kao stimulansi, analgetici, antisep¬tici za čišćenje rana i ublažavanje bolova, kao emetici, digestivi, protuotrovi kod trovanja biljkama, za ugrize i ubode te kao pročišćivači. Ne smije se, međutim, zanemariti štetno djelovanje zbog njihove zloporabe, poput pijanstva, kroničnoga oštećenja jetre te, rabeći modernu terminologiju, bolesti poput pankreatitisa, kardiomiopatije, periferne neuropatije, demencije i poremećaja središnjega živčanog sustava