Many cures were based on trial and error, superstition, and misguided assumptions about how our bodies function. People in Europe began utilising opium, a milky substance from the poppy plant, as a painkiller in the 1500s and 1600s.
Laudanum was an opium-alcohol-herb concoction used to treat pain, sleeplessness, coughing, and diarrhoea, among other symptoms. Laudanum was used to cure everything from colds to the Black Plague in Europe since there were so many terrible illnesses at the time (and so few treatments that really worked!) As a result, it proved to be very addicting.
In the next 150 years, scientists made significant progress in their understanding of chemistry and biology. Friedrich Sertürner, a German scientist, created the first modern, pharmacological medication in 1804. Morphine, after the Greek god of sleep, was produced from opium in his laboratory and renamed after him.
Morphine was utilised by doctors to alleviate severe pain, and it continues to be used in hospitals today for this reason. Sadly, Sertürner developed an addiction to his own substance despite his warnings to others.
In 1820, a malaria drug called quinine was developed. In 1877, scientists discovered paracetamol, and in the 1890s, they discovered that willow bark could be used to make aspirin. For headaches, fevers, and inflammatory pains, we still utilise them.
Antibiotics
Chemists and medics started researching natural and manmade substances to battle germs after realising that numerous illnesses were caused by infectious bacteria. Biochemistry, microbiology, and synthetic organic chemistry made significant progress in the first half of the twentieth century, which led to the development of antibiotics. Streptomycin was created by Salman Waksman in the 1940s and tetracycline by Benjamin Duggar in the 1930s. Vancomycin was first created in the 1950s, but it is currently being used to treat MRSA infections.
Vaccinations
Inoculations against smallpox were first seen in the year 1670, according to historical records. The formula was developed by Edward Jenner, who is generally credited for the long study and development that was required to make it widely accessible to other doctors and their patients.
In numerous locations throughout the globe, polio epidemics reached pandemic proportions in the late 1930s. In an effort to better understand the condition and its underlying virus, researchers enlisted the help of experts. Researchers didn’t discover three distinct strains of the virus until the late 1940s. It took till Jonas Salk and his University of Pittsburgh team produced the vaccine formula in 1952 before it was made accessible to the public in 1955.
Oncology
Doctors learned during World War II that mustard gas had a significant effect on white blood cells. This unintended consequence prompted scientists to look into the possibility that mustard gas chemicals may harm cancer cells. Alfred Gilman and Louis Goodman, pharmacologists at Yale, researched the effects of nitrogen mustard on lymphoma-infected mice. Great things were accomplished by this team. However, there was still a need for long-term care. Cisplatins and tetrazines were created as a result of research into nitrogen mustard’s alkylating chemicals and their effects on DNA, RNA, and proteins.
DNA-originated anti-metabolites were first studied by George Hitchings and Gertrude Elion in the 1940s, laying the groundwork for modern oncology care. Modified purines with anticancer effects were discovered thanks to their research. Taxus brevifolia, a conifer tree, yielded the chemical taxol in 1971. It was only two decades later, however, that another anticancer recipe owed its existence to the molecule.
Antivirals
Understanding viruses became easier with the discovery of DNA’s structure in 1953. Recombinant DNA technology was established in the 1970s and researchers started cloning molecules. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, advances in molecular biology and virology aided HIV research. Peptide analogues, non-nucleosides, and nucleosides were developed to target HIV because of the understanding of how viruses assault the body, proliferate, and multiply. Even though drug-resistant virus strains made treatment more difficult, researchers quickly determined that combinations of drugs were the solution. Combination chemistry and molecular modelling were among the techniques employed to develop next generation medicines.
