Colchicum

Abstract: This brief history of the use of extracts of Colchicum autumnale in the treatment of gout had its origin in some research relative to the metabolism and mode of action of colchicine. It was interesting to review this history in order to develop a background, and thus to learn what ancient authorities and later observers knew about this drug. We shall review the evidence for the identity of certain plants thought by many investigators to be identical with our modern Colchicum autumnale, and which were described by early writers as poisons and later recommended in the treatment of gout; re-emphasize knowledge which has been more or less forgotten but which could be of experimental and practical usefulness to-day; delineate the fluctuations of popularity of colchicum as a treatment for gout during the past 1,500 years; and briefly mention the history of its uses in other fields of research. At the present time colchicine and its derivatives, as well as other mitotic-arresting drugs, are of considerable importance in the field of cancer research. More thoroughly established, however, is the role of colchicine in the treatment of acute attacks of gout, and it is this latter role that concerns us most here. In the preparation of this study we have received invaluable assistance from Professor William H. Stahl, Chairman of the Department of Classics of New York University, who translated some of the Greek and Latin of the original manuscripts; and from the Inaugural Dissertation of Doctor Kurt Ruegg of Basel (Ruegg, 1936), on which we have relied heavily for our discussion of the mediaeval period. A resume by Sharp (1909) has also been of some help, as has the work of Schnitker (1936).