Viper meat, paradise grain, opium, beaver glands - these are just some of the over 71 ingredients necessary for scientists from the University of Wrocław.Scientists from Wrocław undertook to recreate old Polish medicines and test them in a laboratory.Their first goal is to reproduce the controversial teriak.As part of the project financed by the National Science Center, scientists from the Medical University of Wrocław and the University of Wrocław undertook the reconstruction of drugs used in the territory of the Republic of Poland between the 16th and 18th centuries.The first reconstituted drug is teriac, which was then used as a medicine for many ailments and as an antidote.At the moment, however, Dr. Danuta Raj and Dr. Maciej Włodarczyk say in unison: "So far, there is no indication of that."At the same time, scientists from the Department and Department of Pharmacognosy and Plant Medicine at the Medical University of Wrocław make a reservation that they only know the composition of teriac for the time being.Knowing and studying the effects of teriac - and later also other specifics - will be possible only after the completion of the analysis of the content of active compounds and the biological activity of the reconstructed preparations.The project of recreating old Polish drugs is unique and is a combination of efforts of both historians and pharmacists.Because although some of the drugs - including teriak - were used throughout Europe, their recipe differed depending on the region.Scientists from Wrocław have set themselves the goal of recreating their old Polish versions, and thus - a reconstruction based solely on Polish sources and regulations.This is not the only problem that scholars have encountered, as differences in nomenclature also hinder:One of the problems with identifying the ingredients of pre-Linnaeus drugs is the non-unified nomenclature.Pharmacists wrote in Latin, often used their own abbreviations, but the worst part was that one substance could have different names, depending on the region or even the author.In addition, some of the names today mean something different than they used to be.This was the case, for example, with cardamom, one of the ingredients of the Teriaku we recreate.As "cardamom" on the recipe in Toruń there was an ingredient known as "the grain of paradise", while the proper cardan was called Amomi Fructus.It wasn't hard to get confused, but we solved the mystery.Another problem in the way of science were legal problems - some of the plants and animal products used at that time came from protected organisms.This was the case, for example, with the meat of the viper, which is under protection.Foresters from the State Forests helped here by donating the bodies of reptiles that died under the wheels to the University of Wrocław.On the other hand, the secretion from the beaver glands was obtained by Wrocław scientists thanks to ... contraband intercepted by the customs services and further cooperation with the Podlasie Customs and Tax Office.Currently, the biggest - but also the last - problem of scientists is opium, for which they need the consent of the Main Pharmaceutical Inspectorate.When reproducing teriak, scientists use not only traditional recipes and ingredients, but also traditional devices from the collections of the Pharmacy Museum of the Medical University in Wrocław.Hundreds of years old mortars, old pigeons and other exhibits left the shelves of the Pharmacy Museum to take an active part in the project, which is the first project of this type in Poland