[Therapeutic uses of natron in Ancient Egypt and the Greco-Roman world]

Natron or native soda, a natural compound of sodium salts, was a very important product in ancient history. It was produced in Egypt, Middle East and Greece. Natron was used for medicine, cookery, agriculture, in glass-making and to dehydrate egyptian mummies. The medicinal uses are known thanks to egyptian pharaonic, greek and latin texts, which are rich of hundreds of recipes. Those treatments concerning almost every part of the body were essentially applied externally. They are often intended to treat dermatological pathology and hydro-electrolytic disorders as well as lesions caused by fungi and parasites. The present knowledge of the pharmacological properties of the components of natron does not explain fully its place in ancient medicine.