A medieval physician: Amirdovlat Amasiatsi (1420-1495)
15th Century; Amirdovlat Amasiatsi; Anatolia; Armenia; Armenian; Herbal Medicine; History; Manuscripts; Mashtots Matenadaran; Medical as Topic; Medieval; Medieval; Ottoman Empire; Physicians; Turkey
We aimed to acquaint the reader with a medieval physician, Amirdovlat Amasiatsi, who lived and practiced in the 15th century Anatolia. Amirdovlat wrote several books on medicine mainly focusing on phytotherapy and pharmacology using medicinal plants, animal-derived products and minerals. All his works were written in Middle Armenian, spoken Armenian language of the time. In his writings, Amirdovlat described unique recipes that represent a portrayal of medical knowledge and practice at the time in Anatolia where he lived and worked. He discussed the physical and therapeutic properties as well as geographic distributions of various plants and minerals, using different languages, mainly Turkish, Greek, Arabic, French and Persian. Amirdovlat's works not only enhanced our understanding of Armenian medical practices but also provided great deal of information on those of Ancient Greco-Roman as well as Islamic world, demonstrating close relationship of Armenian medicine with Greco-Roman and Islamic medicine. Amirdovlat accomplished this by amalgamating the past and contemporary practices of his time. In this regard, Amirdovlat's works, in particular "Useless for the Ignorant", are very unique playing a significant role in preserving traditions and heritage of different cultures.
Gurunluoglu Aslin; Gurunluoglu Raffi; Hakobyan Tatevik
Journal of Medical Biography
2019
2019-05
<a href="http://doi.org/10.1177/0967772016682726" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10.1177/0967772016682726</a>
Organization of apatite crystals in human woven bone
apatite; collagen; collagen fibril; Endocrinology & Metabolism; leg tendons; microstructure; turkey; voltage electron-microscopy; woven bone
The organization of collagen fibrils differs in woven bone and lamellar bone, and it reflects certain aspects of the nature of the mineral crystals associated with them. In order to investigate the morphology and distribution of apatite crystals in woven bone, mineralized collagen fibrils and isolated crystals from the mid-diaphyses of human fetal femurs were observed with scanning and transmission electron microscopy and high-resolution electron microscopy. A number of features of woven bone were observed for the first time by these means. Similar to mature crystals from lamellar bone, the apatite crystals in woven bone are also platelet-shaped. However, most likely because of a high rate of old bone resorption and new bone formation in woven material, the average crystal dimensions are considerably smaller than those of mature crystals in lamellar bone. Apatite crystals were noted on the surface of collagen fibrils in woven bone. In densely packed woven bone, the periodicity of mineral deposited on individual fibrils is in registration over many fibrils. In addition to their association with collagen surfaces, crystals also appear distributed in both extrafibrillar and intrafibrillar collagen regions. In both cases, the minerals are crystalline and defect-free. These characteristics provide insight into the spatial and temporal relation between collagen and mineral that is the basis for the structure and organization of the mineral comprising human woven bone. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved.
Su X; Sun K; Cui F Z; Landis W J
Bone
2003
2003-02
Journal Article
<a href="http://doi.org/10.1016/s8756-3282(02)00945-6" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10.1016/s8756-3282(02)00945-6</a>