Ming Surgical Tools Carry Traces of a Toxic Plant Anesthetic
Six hundred years ago, a Ming dynasty surgeon numbed a patient’s skin with a plant that can kill. Traces of that medicine are still sitting on his tools.
Researchers led by archaeologists at Northwest University in China analyzed two iron surgical instruments, a pair of scissors and a pair of tweezers, found decades ago in the tomb of Xia Quan in Jiangyin, about 90 miles northwest of Shanghai. The tomb dates to the Ming dynasty, roughly 1368 to 1644. The study was published on May 26 in the journal Antiquity.
What the lab found
X-ray fluorescence confirmed that both tools were iron. Under a microscope, the team picked three tiny particles of rust-colored residue and analyzed them with micro-Raman spectroscopy, which fires a laser at a sample and reads the pattern of scattered light as a fingerprint of its molecules. The results showed a cyano functional group along with the organic components of oils and fats. The researchers wrote that this points to medicinal and potentially anesthetic properties, and that aconitine is a probable component of the residue.
A poison turned medicine
Aconitine comes from plants in the genus Aconitum, known as aconite, monkshood or wolfsbane. They are extremely poisonous, yet traditional Asian medicine has used them for centuries, mainly for pain relief. Ming practitioners knew how to reduce the toxicity with acidic substances such as mung beans, vinegar or the urine of young boys, producing an anesthetic powder or liquid.
The tools were likely used in minor surgery. A practitioner would apply the numbing agent, use the tweezers to hold the skin and cut away the outer layer with the scissors. The residue was concentrated in the working areas of both tools, and it was probably a liquid that splashed on the iron and escaped cleaning.
How firm is the claim
The paper describes aconitine as a probable component, not a confirmed one. Live Science calls this the first time researchers have found direct chemical evidence of anesthetics on ancient surgical tools. Combined with Ming medical texts that record anesthetic prescriptions, the authors say the study confirms aconite was used as a topical anesthetic.
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