[Helix and drugs: snails for health care from Antiquity to these days].
Land helix, so called snails, have been used in medicine since Antiquity. We find them until today in pharmaceutical specialties and it is the subject of several studies. Why this gastropod has much interested and what products were used, based on this unique active ingredient? Some famous pharmacists like Mure, Figuier and Barin-Barthélémy, made specialties that were well known along the 19th century as proven by the Dorvault reference book in 1877. But the history of snails in medicine continued during the 20th century with hélicidine, commercialized in France in 1957, and with HPA (HElix Pomatia Lectin) that is fixed by metastatic tissues.
Bonnemain
Bruno
B
D000818:Animals; D006372:Helix, Snails / Q000187:drug effects*; D000077406:History of Pharmacy; D049690:History, Ancient; D049692:History, Early Modern 1451-1600; D049691:History, Medieval; D049711:History, Modern 1601-; D012908:Snails / Q000187:drug effects*