Authors: M P Colombini F Modugno M C Gamberini M Rocchi C Baraldi T Deviese R J Stacey M Orlandi F Saliu C Riedo O Chiantore G Sciutto E Catelli L Brambilla L Toniolo C Miliani P Rocchi J Bleton U Baumer P Dietemann G Pojana S Marras
Publish Date: 2011/06/11
Volume: 401, Issue: 6, Pages: 1847-1860
Abstract
Chemical analysis of ancient residues of pharmaceutical or cosmetic preparations such as balms or ointments is made problematic by the high complexity of these mixtures composed of organic and inorganic materials Consequently a multianalytical approach and special caution in the interpretation of the results are necessary In order to contribute to the improvement of analytical strategies for the characterization of complex residues and to reconstruct ancient medical practices a replica of a pharmaceutical formulation of the seventeenth century was prepared in the laboratory according to a historically documented recipe In a round robin exercise a portion of the preparation was analysed as a blind sample by 11 laboratories using various analytical techniques These included spectroscopic chromatographic and mass spectrometric methods None of the laboratories was able to completely reconstruct the complex formulation but each of them gave partial positive results The round robin exercise has demonstrated that the application of a multianalytical approach can permit a complete and reliable reconstruction of the composition Finally on the basis of the results an analytical protocol for the study of residues of ancient medical and pharmaceutical preparations has been outlined
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