The usage of porcupine bezoar has a long history believed to have originated in the Middle East and subsequently spread to European countries by the Arabian traders and medicine men during the Crusades.
Bezoar stones are masses of undigested material found in the gastrointestinal tract. The earliest form of studies on bezoar stones can be traced back to Persia (present day Iran) where Persian scholars such as Abu Mansur Muwaffak and Al-Biruni described various types of bezoars in their works. The term “bezoar” comes from the Persian word “padzhar” meaning “antidote”.
During the Age of Discovery, European nations established trade routes to acquire exotic goods, including bezoar stones, which were highly valued for their therapeutic properties. They were traded extensively between Europe, India, China, and Southeast Asia.
Garcia de Orta (1490–1568), a Portuguese Jewish physician and naturalist who studied medicine in Spain, fled his home country for fear of the Inquisition, sailing to India as Chief Physician to the fleet of Viceroy Martim Afonso de Sousa (circa 1500-1571); he eventually settled in Goa. Here, he published his famous Colóquiosdos simples e drogas he cousas medicinaisda Índia (‘Conversations on the simples, drugs and medicinal substances of India’) in 1563. In the seventeenth Colloquy, he states “but the best medicine of all is three grains of bezoar stone, which the Persians call pazar. It is of such use that it almost miraculously dilates the powers of the heart. I have had many patients who said to me after taking it, not knowing what it was, that the medicine they had eaten had given them renewed force, and made the soul return to the body.“
Different types of bezoar stones were recognized, and as demand increased, fake bezoars flooded the market. The Portuguese Jesuit Gaspar António created the Lapis de Goa to counteract this. However, even these were open to fraud, the carefully blended plant and animal products and comminuted precious stones overlain with polished gold leaf being replaced by coarse pebbles of fine sandstone.
Caspar Bauhin, also known as Gaspard (1560-1624), is a famous Swiss botanist whose family fled to Switzerland from France when his father converted to Protestantism. Caspar studied medicine in Italy and Germany before returning to his hometown, Basel, in 1580, eventually holding professorial positions in anatomy, botany and the practice of medicine, as well as being city physician and rector of the university. In 1613, Bauhin published his De lapidibus Bezaar Orient. Et Occident, touching on innumerable alexipharmic materials in the course of his discussion. Here, he also introduces Lapis malaccensis, the Porcupine Bezoar.
