Ancient and Novel Forms of Silver in Medicine and Biomedicine

Abstract

Silver cations have been known as potent antimicrobial agents since ancient time and were used in burns, wounds and ulcers treatment(1). Silver was known to the Chaldeans as early as 4,000 B.C.E, and it was the third metal known to be used by the ancients, after gold and copper(2). Silver colloids have been used for numerous medical conditions, mostly empirically before realizing that microbes were the agents causing infection. The ancient Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans and Egyptians had used silver compounds as food and water preservative. The use of silverbased compounds for wound-healing and wound infection prevention and treatment were used by Hippocrates and Macedonians. They believed that treatment of ulcers with silver compounds not only could prevent infections but also promote the healing process. Even silver nitrate, an strong oxidative chemical, has had medical applications and was specified in a Roman pharmacopeia about 69 BCE (2). The first report of using silver nitrate in medicine in the CE was reported by Gabor in 702-705 for the treatment of wounds. Angelo Sal used silver nitrate in 1614 as a counterirritant, purgative, and for the treatment of brain infections (2). During

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