Avicenna’s pharmacological approach to memory enhancement

In recent decades, the number of patients with dementia has significantly risen. Current treatments for dementia are not curative and there still is place for development of medications. Throughout the ages, several medical disciplines have systematized and codified medical knowledge acquired throughout centuries of trial and error. Revisiting these disciplines might help in gaining insight for development of medications and other therapeutic strategies. The present study aims to show the possible benefits of an immanent understanding of the approach towards memory and dementias taken by humoral medical discourse in the Islamicate world. This study presents how brain function was theorized in the medieval Islamicate world. Afterwards, a brief history of the theory of the inner senses and of humoral medicine is briefly presented. Then the definition of memory and its localization within the brain as theorized in the framework of humoral medicine is closely studied. To demonstrate the possible advantages of the study of the inner logic of humoral medicine, ten medicinal plants are chosen and discussed.