Copper through the ages

Or what did the ancients ever do for us?
(Apologies to Monty Python)

2600 and 2200 B.C

The first recorded medical use of copper is found in the Smith Papyrus, one of the oldest books known. The Papyrus is an Egyptian medical text which records the use of copper to sterilize chest wounds by sharpening their copper alloy swords above a wound allowing the filings to fall into it. Also to sterilize drinking water, trials more recently in India show contaminated water stored in copper drinking jugs will become safe to drink after a short time.

1500 B.C

Other early reports of copper's medicinal uses are found in the Ebers Papyrus which documented medicine practiced in ancient Egypt and in other cultures that flourished many centuries earlier. Copper compounds were recommended for headaches, burn wounds, itching and certain growths in the neck, some of which were probably boils. Forms of copper used for the treatment of disease ranged from metallic copper splinters and shavings to various naturally occurring copper salts and oxides.

460 to 380 B.C

In the Hippocratic Collection copper is recommended for the treatment of leg ulcers associated with varicose veins. To prevent infection of fresh wounds, the Greeks sprinkled a dry powder composed of copper oxide and copper sulfate on the wound. Another antiseptic wound treatment at the time was a boiled mixture of honey and red copper oxide. The Greeks had easy access to copper since the metal was readily available on the island of Kypros (Cyprus) from which the Latin name for copper, cuprum, is derived.

100 A.D

In the New World the Aztecs also used copper for medical purposes. For the treatment of "Faucium Calor" (literally, heat of the throat, or, sore throat) they prescribed gargling with a mixture of ingredients containing copper. Copper was also employed in ancient India and Persia to treat lung diseases. The tenth century book, Liber Fundamentorum Pharmacologiae describes the use of copper compounds for medicinal purposes in ancient Persia. Powdered malachite was sprinkled on boils, copper acetate as well as and copper oxide were used for diseases of the eye and for the elimination of "yellow bile." Nomadic Mongolian tribes treated and healed ulcers of venereal origin with orally administered copper sulfate.

1900 A.D

Turning to more modern times, the first observation of copper's role in the immune system was published in 1867 when it was reported that, during the cholera epidemics in Paris of 1832, 1849 and 1852, copper workers were immune to the disease. More recently copper's role in the immune system has been supported by observations that individuals suffering from Menke's disease (an inherited disease in which there is defective copper absorption and metabolism) generally die of immune system-related phenomena and other infections. Further, animals deficient in copper have been shown to have increased susceptibility to bacterial pathogens such as Salmonella and Listeria. Evidence such as this has led researchers to suggest strongly that copper compounds not only cure disease but also aid in the prevention of disease. In 1885, the French physician, Luton, reported on using copper acetate in his practice to treat arthritic patients. For external application he made a salve of hog's lard and 30% neutral copper acetate. Copper arsenate had been used to treat acute and chronic diarrhea as well as dysentery and cholera. A variety of inorganic copper preparations were found to be effective in treating chronic adenitis, eczema, impetigo, scorphulosis, tubercular infections, lupus, syphilis, anemias, chorea and facial neuralgia. An organic complex of copper developed by Bayer was shown to have curative powers in the treatment of tuberculosis. Copper treatment for tuberculosis continued until the 1940s, and various physicians reported on their success in using copper preparations in intravenous injections.

20th Cenury

In 1939, the German physician, Werner Hangarter, noticed that Finnish copper miners were unaffected by arthritis as long as they worked in the mining industry. This was particularly striking since rheumatism was a widespread disease in Finland, and workers in other industries and other towns had more rheumatic diseases than did the copper miners. This observation led Finnish medical researchers plus the Germans, Hangarter and Lübke, to begin their now classic clinical trials using an aqueous mixture of copper chloride and sodium salicylate. They successfully treated patients suffering from rheumatic fever, rheumatoid arthritis, neck and back problems, as well as sciatica.

References

The historical part of this paper is based on H.H.A. Dollwet and J.R.J. Sorenson, Historic uses of copper compounds in medicine, Trace Elements in Medicine, Vol. 2, No. 2, 1985, pp 80 - 87.