Drogen im Mogulreich - Drugs in the Mughal Empire

Scientific Essay from the year 2012 in the subject Orientalism / Sinology - Islamic Studies, grade: keine, Ruhr-University of Bochum (Seminar für Orientalistik und Islamwissenschaft), course: Sexualität und Drogen bei den Moguln: Beispiele aus Medizin, Ethik und Historiographie, language: English, abstract: In order to address the subject 'Drugs in the Mughal Empire', it is necessary to introduce some terms and basic concepts and explain some background circumstances. First and foremost it makes sense to illustrate the definition of the term drug as such. Moreover, opium is addressed specifically and its production, mode of action and pharmacological application as well as its effect on the human body will be explained briefly. Originally the pharmacological term drug described a substance of plant or animal origin. Another classification of the term refers on the one hand to the medicinal drug and on the other hand to the narcotic drug. The term medicinal drug means dried medicinal plants or parts of these plants, as for example roots, seeds or essential oils. The formulations of these plants or plant parts (or extracts of active substances) are therefore used as remedies. In more recent times the word 'drug' established itself as a term for narcotics (narcotic drugs) and addictive narcotics in general which sometimes can cause dependencies. Thus the term 'drug' underwent a semantic shift, which must be taken into account, as 'pharmaceutical drugs' must under no circumstances be equated with 'drugs'. Nevertheless it should be noted that certain substances whose effect was originally or is still used for medical purposes and thus are to be seen as medicinal drugs, can be used very well also as narcotic drug or toxic substance. The definition, whether this involves a remedy, a narcotic drug or a toxic substance, is rather vague and therefore determined by the intended purpose, the user or patient, the field of application and often the dosage in particular. Theophrastus Paracelsus defined the toxicity of substances as follows: All things are poison, and nothing is without poison; only the dose permits something not to be poisonous. --- Um auf das Thema 'Drogen im Mogulreich' einzugehen, sollten einleitend einige Begriffe, Grundlagen und Hintergründe erläutert werden. So ist es zu allererst sinnvoll, die Definition des Begriffs Droge als solche darzulegen. Des Weiteren wird auf Opium im speziellen eingegangen und seine Gewinnung, Wirkweise, pharmakologische Anwendung, sowie seine Auswirkung auf den Organismus kurz erläutert. Ursprünglich bezeichnete der pharmakologische Begriff Droge zu allererst einen pflanzlichen oder tierischen Stoff.