Middle East · Persia / Central Asia Biomedical Students 5 September 2026

IBN SINA (AVICENNA) AND THE CANON OF MEDICINE Abu Ali al-Husayn ibn Abd Allah ibn Sina (980-1037 CE), known in the West as Avicenna, was a Persian polymath and physician whose al-Qanun fi'l-Tibb (The Canon of Medicine) stands as one of the most influential medical texts in history. STRUCTURE OF THE CANON The Canon is organised into five books: 1. General principles of medicine and the nature of the human body 2. Simple drugs (over 800 medicinal substances catalogued) 3. Diseases of specific organs, from head to toe 4. General conditions: fevers, tumours, poisons 5. Compound formulations and their preparation PHARMACOLOGICAL CONTRIBUTIONS Ibn Sina's systematic classification of medicinal substances by their primary qualities (hot/cold/moist/dry) and their clinical actions laid the groundwork for rational pharmacology. He described: - The concept of drug testing: clinical trials must be conducted on humans, not animals, as effects may differ - The importance of dosage and contraindications - Distillation techniques for essential oils - Over 760 herbal, mineral, and animal-derived drugs LEGACY IN MODERN BIOMEDICAL SCIENCE The Canon was translated into Latin and used as the primary medical textbook at European universities until the 17th century. Many of Ibn Sina's drug formulations have since been validated pharmacologically. His insistence on empirical testing and systematic observation makes him a proto-scientific figure whose methodology anticipates the evidence-based medicine paradigm.

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