Pharmacy and the olive branch of peace

I have written recently about Galen and Avicenna, the supporters of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s shield of arms, and now I turn to the motifs on the shield itself.

Depicted in the shield’s “first quarter” (ie, top left) is “a dove holding in the mouth an olive branch”. This motif is, of course, derived from the biblical legend of Noah and the flood.

When the 40 days of rain abated, Noah sent out a reconnaissance pigeon, which eventually returned with an olive leaf, thus indicating that the waters were subsiding.

A white dove carrying a sprig of olive leaves subsequently became an emblem of peace. The peace pigeon is usually represented as a white bird carrying in its bill a twig bearing half a dozen leaves. It is typically depicted in flight, but the Society’s shield bucks the trend by showing it on foot.

Although they do not appear on the Society’s shield for a specifically pharmaceutical reason, olive leaves have long been used medicinally. Extracts in the form of tinctures or decoctions were once employed as a febrifuge (antipyretic) and an antiperiodic (prophylaxis against recurring attacks of disease), particularly in malaria.

A tincture of olive leaves (tinctura oleae foliorum) appeared in the Pharmaceutical Society’s British Pharmaceutical Codex early in the 20th century.

The pharmacology of olive leaves is still the subject of research. Only last year Australian investigators reported in the US Journal of Nutrition that an olive leaf extract may help to combat obesity.

More familiar as an ingredient of pharmaceutical formulae is olive oil. Obtained from the olive fruit, the oil has a long history of medicinal use. It appeared as a constituent of remedies in formularies as old as the Ebers papyrus of c1550BC.

Olive oil is, of course, known principally as a culinary product, but in Britain that has not always been the case. Just a few decades ago, its main use in Britain was as a solvent for the removal of ear wax. Anyone wanting to use it in the kitchen would have found they could acquire it most easily by visiting the local pharmacy, where olive oil BP was sold mainly in 2 fl oz (50ml) bottles.