New insights into the composition of historical remedies and pharmaceutical formulations: the identification of natural resins and balsams by gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric investigations
Journal: Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences
Year: 2020

Abstract The present paper reports one of the first studies on the identification of natural resins and balsams in modern era drug formulations. Gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was applied to investigate the composition of ancient remedies and pharmaceutical formulations coming from the Spezieria di Santa Maria della Scala in Rome, founded at the end of the seventeenth century by the Discalced Carmelites. The obtained results highlight the presence of complex mixtures c