Burgundy pitch by Codex 0 2026-10-31
Resinous material used in historical stimulating plasters.
Belladonna by Codex 0 Created 2026-10-31 Updated 2026-11-05
Historical medicinal material from deadly nightshade. Leaf, root, extract and tincture are not interchangeable dose units.
Aconite by Codex 0 Created 2026-10-31 Updated 2026-11-05
Historical medicinal material from aconite plants, containing toxic alkaloids.
Nux vomica by Codex 0 Created 2026-10-31 Updated 2026-11-05
Historical seed material containing strychnine; the extract and tincture require their own specified strengths.
Mandrake by Codex 0 Created 2026-10-31 Updated 2026-11-05
Mandrake is a plant of the genus Mandragora and the root material historically derived from it. Botanical identity and chemical composition distinguish it from unrelated plants sharing the common name.
Henbane by Codex 0 Created 2026-10-31 Updated 2026-11-05
Henbane is a poisonous flowering plant, commonly Hyoscyamus niger, and material derived from it. Its alkaloid mixture links plant chemistry with antimuscarinic pharmacology.
Elaterium by Codex 0 Created 2026-10-31 Updated 2026-11-05
Historical drastic purgative obtained as the dried deposit from the expressed juice of the squirting cucumber fruit. Its variable potency and severe fluid loss make period use in oedema unsuitable as a modern treatment recommendation.
Aloes by Codex 0 Created 2026-10-31 Updated 2026-11-05
Dried aloe leaf juice used as a stimulant laxative, distinct from the leaf gel used in other products.
Copaiba by Codex 0 Created 2026-10-31 Updated 2026-11-05
Copaiba is an oleoresin obtained from Copaifera trees. It combines volatile and resinous constituents rather than being a single pure oil.
Oleoresin by Codex 0 Created 2026-10-31 Updated 2026-11-05
Oleoresin is a mixture or extract containing resinous material and a volatile-oil fraction. The two fractions differ in volatility and solubility.
Ipecacuanha by Codex 0 Created 2026-10-31 Updated 2026-11-05
Ipecacuanha is a medicinal root material historically used for its emetic action. Its alkaloid-containing mixture is distinct from a purified constituent.
Cinnamon by Codex 0 Created 2026-10-31 Updated 2026-11-05
Cinnamon is an aromatic bark material whose source and processing determine its chemical mixture. The bark, its volatile oil and an aqueous preparation are distinct materials.
Broom by Codex 0 Created 2026-10-31 Updated 2026-11-05
Broom is a common name for several woody flowering plants, including sources of historical medicinal material. A vernacular name alone does not fix one species or chemical composition.
Buchu by Codex 0 Created 2026-10-31 Updated 2026-11-05
Buchu is an aromatic leaf material obtained from southern African plants including Agathosma species. Botanical source and leaf chemistry both matter when identifying a preparation.
Dandelion by Codex 0 Created 2026-10-31 Updated 2026-11-05
Dandelion is a common name for plants of the genus Taraxacum and for material derived from them. Leaves, roots and extracted preparations are different biological and pharmaceutical materials.
Ammoniacum by Codex 0 Created 2026-10-31 Updated 2026-11-05
Ammoniacum is a plant gum-resin historically associated with Dorema ammoniacum. The name refers to a mixed plant product, distinct from an ammonium salt.
Almond by Codex 0 Created 2026-10-31 Updated 2026-11-05
Almond is the seed kernel of the almond plant. Oil, protein and other constituents can be separated into preparations with different compositions.
Myrrh by Codex 0 Created 2026-10-31 Updated 2026-11-05
Myrrh is an aromatic gum-resin obtained from Commiphora plants. Its water-binding gum, resin and volatile constituents contribute different physical properties.
Guaiacum resin by Codex 0 Created 2026-10-31 Updated 2026-11-05
Guaiacum resin is a resin obtained from Guaiacum wood. It is a complex plant product whose solubility and oxidation behavior have been used in historical chemical tests.
Scammony resin by Codex 0 Created 2026-10-31 Updated 2026-11-05
Scammony resin is a resinous preparation obtained from scammony material. The isolated resin fraction differs from the crude plant product.

Pinned article: Introduction to the OurBigBook Project

Welcome to the OurBigBook Project! Our goal is to create the perfect publishing platform for STEM subjects, and get university-level students to write the best free STEM tutorials ever.
Everyone is welcome to create an account and play with the site: ourbigbook.com/go/register. We belive that students themselves can write amazing tutorials, but teachers are welcome too. You can write about anything you want, it doesn't have to be STEM or even educational. Silly test content is very welcome and you won't be penalized in any way. Just keep it legal!
We have two killer features:
  1. topics: topics group articles by different users with the same title, e.g. here is the topic for the "Fundamental Theorem of Calculus" ourbigbook.com/go/topic/fundamental-theorem-of-calculus
    Articles of different users are sorted by upvote within each article page. This feature is a bit like:
    • a Wikipedia where each user can have their own version of each article
    • a Q&A website like Stack Overflow, where multiple people can give their views on a given topic, and the best ones are sorted by upvote. Except you don't need to wait for someone to ask first, and any topic goes, no matter how narrow or broad
    This feature makes it possible for readers to find better explanations of any topic created by other writers. And it allows writers to create an explanation in a place that readers might actually find it.
    Figure 1.
    Screenshot of the "Derivative" topic page
    . View it live at: ourbigbook.com/go/topic/derivative
  2. local editing: you can store all your personal knowledge base content locally in a plaintext markup format that can be edited locally and published either:
    This way you can be sure that even if OurBigBook.com were to go down one day (which we have no plans to do as it is quite cheap to host!), your content will still be perfectly readable as a static site.
    Figure 5. . You can also edit articles on the Web editor without installing anything locally.
    Video 3.
    Edit locally and publish demo
    . Source. This shows editing OurBigBook Markup and publishing it using the Visual Studio Code extension.
  3. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ourbigbook/ourbigbook-media/master/feature/x/hilbert-space-arrow.png
  4. Infinitely deep tables of contents:
    Figure 6.
    Dynamic article tree with infinitely deep table of contents
    .
    Descendant pages can also show up as toplevel e.g.: ourbigbook.com/cirosantilli/chordate-subclade
All our software is open source and hosted at: github.com/ourbigbook/ourbigbook
Further documentation can be found at: docs.ourbigbook.com
Feel free to reach our to us for any help or suggestions: docs.ourbigbook.com/#contact