Pharmacological Concepts of Temperament in Iranian Traditional Medicine

According to the literature available on Iranian traditional medicine (ITM), elements (fire, air, water , soil) are small bodies indivisible to different components and are essential constituents of human and non-human beings. Warmness, coldness, wetness and dryness are the basic qualities that each of the elements has a pair of them: fire is warm and dry, air is warm and wet, water is cold and wet, and soil is cold and dry. After action and reaction of these four elements, a homologous quality/qualities will be dominant in composite objects which is called temperament. In this viewpoint medicines like other substances are based on the four mentioned elements and have their own specific temperaments. In fact, medicines affect our body by their qualities of warm-ness, wetness, dryness and coldness (1). Medicines are divided into two categories of moderate and immoderate. The criterion for this division is a moderate body. A medicine, which does not cause any changes in a moderate body's quality, is called moderate; otherwise, it is immoderate (2). Immoderate medicines are graded into four degrees with different properties as follows:-First degree: a low dose of medicine does not produce any dominant quality in the body and more and repeated doses of it will make minor changes in body's quality.-Second degree: a low dose of medicine produces a dominant quality in the body, and more and repeated doses of it will not cause any harm.-Third degree: a low dose of medicine produces a dominant quality in the body and more and repeated doses of it will harm the body but it will not be lethal.-Forth degree: the medicine is lethal (3). Comparison and analogy are the two primary ways in ITM to determine a medicine's temperament. According to Avicenna viewpoint, there are seven rules for determination the temperament of medicines through experience including: 1) the medicine should be free from acquired qualities. 2) The experiment should be based on a simple disease (with one cause). 3) The medicine should be tested on diseases with opposite temperaments. 4) Quality and quantity of medicine should be in proper proportion to the nature and severity of the disease. 5) When a medicine is proved effective , the time it takes to work should be noted. 6) The action of the medicine should be continuously followed. If the action of medicine is continual and the same in all or most of the cases, it …