The world’s oldest known formula for toothpaste, used more than 1,500 years before Colgate began marketing in 1873, was discovered on a piece of dusty papyrus in the basement of a Viennese museum.
Powder for White and Perfect Teeth
Crush and combine:
• One drachma* of rock salt
• Two drachmas of mint,
• One drachma of dried iris flower
• 20 grains of pepper
Mix with saliva in the mouth to form a “clean tooth paste.”
(*) Drachma: Among the ancient Greeks, a weight of about 66.5 grains; among the modern Greeks, a weight equal to a gram. Also a unit of apothecary weight equal to an eighth of an ounce or to 60 grains.
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