What Insect Has Been Used to Treat Baldness

There are many treatments that are aimed at either restoring hair or simply stopping hair loss. These range from popular medications like Rogaine to special combs that are promoted as reactivating follicles to hair replacement surgery. Although no longer in favor, there was once a time when even an insect was thought to be an effective treatment for baldness.

Identification

• The Spanish fly or blister beetle is most commonly found in southern France and Spain, though it can be found throughout western Asia and southern Europe. It is a half-inch long, bright green and lives on olive trees and honeysuckle. An active ingredient in the insect is cantharadin.

History

• Hippocrates, the "Father of Medicine," worked with Spanish flies as possible medication around 500 B.C. in Greece. Despite popular belief of the time that illnesses were caused by superstitions, the anger of the gods or evil spirits, Hippocrates thought they could be traced to physical problems in the body. This led him to first grind up Spanish fly in an attempt to treat edema (then known as dropsy)--a buildup of fluid under the skin--and amenorrhea--when a woman of reproductive age does not experience a menstrual cycle.

Significance

• Cantharadin is caustic, so when it is applied to any part of the body, it causes irritation. This was Hippocrates' hope in the cases he treated: that by applying the ground insect, fluid would be loosened from the skin or the menstrual cycle would be forced back into being.

  In fact, modern medicine now knows that cantharidin is toxic to both people and animals. It can cause gastro-irritation, vomiting and even death. It is now used almost exclusively by veterinarians as a blistering agent and counterirritant.

Uses

• In the centuries following Hippocrates, cantharadin was used to treat rheumatism, gout and many other ailments. It has been used to treat constipation, as a love potion and as an aphrodisiac.

  In the 1800s, many "miracle cures" were sold to treat pretty much anything that ailed you. One, known as Barry's Tricopherous, promised to regrow hair on bald heads. It was made of 97 percent alcohol, 1.5. percent castor oil and 1 percent cantharadin. In this elixir as well as other products throughout the century, cantharadin was placed directly on the scalp to produce blistering, also known as vestication. The idea was that the blistering would pool blood on the scalp, providing dead or dying hair follicles with more nourishment and thus lead to more growth. Instead, it mostly just caused pain.

Irony

• Hippocrates, who struggled with baldness himself, eventually tried Spanish fly in a mixture with horseradish, pigeon droppings and other spices. He rubbed the solution onto his head--with no success. As we now know, cantharadin is actually toxic to people, thus putting the man who started modern medicine in danger of violating his own oath of first doing no harm.