Unlocking 19th-Century Horse Medicine in Greece

Supported by a Virtual Mobility grant, Ioanna Maltezou and Anastasia Sianou have successfully digitized and standardized Greek ethnophytotherapeutic data. By exploring 19th-century remedies for horses in Greece, their work bridges historical veterinary wisdom with modern pharmacology, strengthening the MedPlants4Vet inventory.

The cover of N. V. Kodrikas' 1853 veterinary textbook.

The cover and title pages of N. V. Kodrikas' 1853 veterinary textbook.

The title page of N. V. Kodrikas' 1853 veterinary textbook.

The project focused on the systematic analysis of the historical Greek textbook "Anthology on the treatment of sick horses, and on various other knowledge related to horse breeding [Απάνθισμα περί θεραπείας νοσούντων ίππων, και περί διαφόρων άλλων γνώσεων αναγομένων εις την ιπποτροφίαν]" published by military veterinarian Nikolaos V. Kodrikas in Athens back in 1853. Over seventy multi-ingredient traditional and single plant recipes were meticulously transcribed and digitized.

A key achievement of this work was the standardization of historical vernacular plant terms into modern botanical nomenclature.

Furthermore, the therapeutic indications were mapped using the contemporary ATCvet classification index, translating recipes like Unguentum digestivum into modern clinical terms. This newly curated Greek dataset underwent rigorous quality control and was integrated into the Working Group 3 database. This milestone directly supports the finalization of the upcoming joint Historical Textbook Literature manuscript.

By preserving regional ethnoveterinary heritage, this virtual collaboration actively advances the development of the open-access MedPlants4Vet digital repository.