On medications for burns in classical antiquity

Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and early Byzantine medical pharmaceutical works show a fairly sophisticated array of simple and compound remedies for burns and scalds. Chief among ancient writings that provide specific botany, minerals, and similar substances used in burn treatment are several Egyptian papyri, the Hippocratic On Wounds, and writings by Celsus, Dioscorides, Pliny the Elder, and Paul of Aegina. Over 70 plants and minerals are identified according to modern nomenclatures. The ancients sought especially those ingredients that would promote rapid healing with a minimum of scarring.