Tamra Phra Osot Phra Narai
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| Author | Physicians of the court of King Narai |
|---|---|
| Language | Thai |
| Composed | 1659–1661 (dated formulas); compiled later |
| Published | 1917 |
| Publisher | Sophinpipattanakorn |
| Place | Bangkok |
| Preparations | Akkhiniwakhana; Thipphakat; Suk saiyat |
|---|---|
| Uses documented | Medicinal |
| Digital facsimile | View the digitised copy |
|---|
The Tamra Phra Osot Phra Narai (ตำราพระโอสถพระนารายณ์, "King Narai's medical treatise") is a collection of medical formulas made up for King Narai of Ayutthaya and his court. Many of its formulas carry the name of the physician who prepared them and the date, between 1659 and 1661.[1]: ก–ข The physicians were Siamese, Chinese, Indian and European.[2] Three of its formulas contain cannabis.[3]: 334 Chawalit Yongram and his co-authors, who call it the Kamphi That Phra Narai, describe it as the oldest national text of Thai traditional medicine.[4]: 2674
The manuscript
Prince Damrong Rajanubhab described the manuscript in his explanation for the first printing in 1917. The Royal Library had received it as a single bundle of palm leaves that had belonged to Prince Wongsathirat Sanit and was given by Prince Chainat Narenthon. It holds royal formulas made up for Narai by the court physicians, with the physicians' names and the days on which each formula was prepared, from the third to the fifth year of the reign. Among them is a European physician's ointment for wounds. Damrong judged that the formulas were gathered into one book later, in the reign of King Thai Sa or King Borommakot, because formula 22 speaks of King Phetracha as already dead.[1]: ก–ข
Tara Alberts describes the treatise as prepared by officials of the royal pharmacy. It sets out the causes of illnesses and the formulas to cure them, made up for members of the court during the reigns of Narai and Phetracha.[2] The text opens with the fire element of the body and its disorders, and the formulas that follow are numbered.[1]: 1–2
Printings
The treatise was first printed in 1917, with Damrong's explanation.[2] Further printings followed in 1918, 1923, 1941, 1950, 1959 and 1965; the seventh, of 1965, was a cremation volume with a preface by the Fine Arts Department.[1] Alberts writes that through the printed version the treatise became a popular text to give out to mourners at cremations.[2] Chayan Pichiansunthorn, Maenmat Chawalit and Wichian Chirawong published an explanation of the text in 2001, with a second edition in 2005.[2][5]: 542
Alberts places the 1917 printing in a wider effort. In the reigns of King Mongkut and King Chulalongkorn, while Western medicine was being introduced, old medical texts were sought out, revised and gathered into a canon that she calls "representative of a supposedly national tradition". Printing moved them from palm-leaf manuscripts and folding books onto paper and into modern Thai. She writes that the treatise itself was "rediscovered" by Krom Luang Wongsa, chief physician of the royal court, at that time.[2]
Cannabis in the treatise
Three formulas contain cannabis (กัญชา, kancha).[3]: 334
- Formula 11, Akkhiniwakhana, for four kinds of vomiting. It takes one part of kancha with no part of the plant named. The text says that Khun Prasit Osot Chin made it up and presented it when Narai was lord of Lopburi.[1]: 6
- Formula 43, Thipphakat, for restlessness with loss of appetite and sleeplessness. It takes 16 parts of cannabis leaf with 8 of opium, in sticks moistened with spirit.[1]: 19
- Formula 44, Suk saiyat, twelve drugs in rising parts from one to twelve, ending with twelve parts of cannabis leaf, taken with honey.[1]: 19–20
Yongram and his co-authors infer from the age of the text that cannabis has been used as medicine in Thailand for more than 360 years.[4]: 2674 In 2019 Akkhiniwakhana and Suk saiyat were among the 16 cannabis formulas that the Ministry of Public Health allowed for treatment.[3]: 334 Suk saiyat is in the national list of essential herbal medicines.[6]: 123
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 ตำราพระโอสถพระนารายณ์ [King Narai's medical treatise] (PDF) (cremation volume) (in ไทย) (7th printing ed.). Bangkok: Fine Arts Department. 1965. Retrieved 29 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Alberts, Tara (June 2022). "Translating surgery and alchemy between seventeenth-century Europe and Siam". Osiris. 37: 251–272. doi:10.1086/719229.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Chokevivat, Vichai (2019). "กัญชา เป็นยาวิเศษ จริงหรือ" [Cannabis: is it really a magic medicine?]. Journal of Thai Traditional & Alternative Medicine (in ไทย). 17 (2): 324–340.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Yongram, Chawalit; Meeboonya, Rumrada; Chokchaisiri, Suwadee; Wonganan, Orawan; Sansila, Piyaporn; Kaewudom, Piput; Kakatum, Narin; Kanjanakaroon, Yodwit; Kamoltham, Thavatchai; Roongpisuthipong, Anuvat; Sripan, Panupan (June 2025). "A qualitative ethnopharmacological analysis of cannabis-based formulations for insomnia in Thai traditional medicine recipes". Tropical Journal of Natural Product Research. 9 (6): 2673–2683. doi:10.26538/tjnpr/v9i6.43.
- ↑ Subcommittee on the Thai Herbal Reference (May–August 2021). "กัญชา-ช่อดอกเพศเมีย" [Kancha: the female inflorescence]. Journal of Thai Traditional & Alternative Medicine (in ไทย). 19 (2): 539–542.
- ↑ Herbal Products Division, Food and Drug Administration (2023). บัญชียาหลักแห่งชาติด้านสมุนไพร พ.ศ. 2566 [National List of Essential Medicines: herbal medicines, B.E. 2566] (PDF) (in ไทย). Food and Drug Administration (Thailand). ISBN 978-974-244-453-2. Retrieved 29 October 2026.