Toxic plant on Ming dynasty-era surgical tools may be world’s oldest chemical evidence of topical anesthetic
A 600-year-old set of surgical instruments found in a grave China The world’s first chemical evidence of a topical anesthetic has emerged. The anesthetic drug used to numb the skin in surgical procedures was made from the highly poisonous plant Chinese wolfsbane. However, among other things, the poisonous plant was first detoxified with urine. “Six …