Most healing plants were probably cultivated in medicinal gardens, in close proximity to the practitioners who used them for their remedies. With access to these gardens, practitioners must have had fresh plants at their disposal, with the option to decide whether it was necessary for their remedies to use these ingredients fresh or in a dried state. Even if medical recipes not always specify the consistency of the active ingredients at the beginning of the manufacturing process, it seems that plants were mostly dried before the extraction process. This is suggested by the frequent occurrence of verbs like "to dry" (abālu), "to parch over fire" (ina išāti urruru) or "to roast" (qalû). Words referring to fresh ingredients, such as "in its green / fresh state" (arqūssu) or "freshly taken" (balṭūssu), occur less often in medical recipes.
The extraction process started by breaking up the active ingredients. The consistency of the resulting grounds ranged from slightly crushed plant bits through coarse granules to fine powders. Medical recipes seem to differentiate between grounds of different consistency by using an extensive selection of verbs with approximately the same meaning -- "to crush" (hašālu, pa'āṣu), "to grind" (ṭênu), "to pound" (sâku), "to chop up" (kasāmu, hašû), "to mince" (hussû) and "to crush minutely" or "to pulverise" (duqququ). Sometimes the texts also indicate the implement that was used to break up the active ingredients. This was mostly done with the help of millstones (erû) or stone mortars (urṣu) and pestles (abattu), as shown by a rather unique medical recipe for head disease that seems to stipulate the use of a brand-new mortar for the successful completion of the healing procedure:
After these bandages, he gathers up into a loaf of bread ten shekels of sahlû ("cress") from the mouth of a mortar which has not yet had chipped-off bits fallen into it (or) was ever made to touch salt (and) vinegar, (and then) he eats it. (Cranium 1, BAM 480+ i 10-11)
Sieves also played a role in the manufacturing process. Especially in the production of fine powders, medical recipes often refer to a multi-step procedure that involved the repeated drying (abālu), crushing (hašālu or sâku) and sifting (napû) of solid ingredients, sometimes with liquid or semi-liquid carrier substances added to the drugs in between every new repetition of this series of actions. Afterwards, the powders could be processed further by introducing more or different liquid carriers, or they could also be used in the form of solid dosages. As a type of medicament, practitioners applied solid dosages mainly in the context of diseases affecting the renal-urinary tract, where the crushed drugs were poured (šapāku) or blown (napāhu) through a reed straw or a bronze tube into the urethra. Other medical conditions treated this way included problems with the eyes and ears as in the following prescription for impaired hearing:
You mix one shekel of juice from nurmû ("pomegranate"), two shekels of juice from kanaktu (an aromatic) (and) [. . .], you sprinkle a tuft of wool (with the mixture) (and) you place it into his ears. You do this for three days, on the fourth day pus comes out of his ears and you wipe it off. Once the pus has come to an end, you pound gabû ("alum") (and) you blow it into his ears using a reed straw. (Ears, BAM 503+ ii 54'-57')
Krisztian Simko
Krisztian Simko, 'Processing active ingredients', The Nineveh Medical Project, The Nineveh Medical Project, Department of the Middle East, The British Museum, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DG, 2022 [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/asbp/NinMed/medicaltechniques/processingingredients/]