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History of Toxicology Timeline

(c. 3000 BCE - Present)

The history of toxicology traces humanity's evolving understanding of poisons and their effects on living organisms. From ancient civilizations using plant and mineral toxins for hunting, medicine, and assassination, to the systematic scientific study pioneered by figures like Paracelsus in the 16th century, toxicology developed into a rigorous discipline. The 19th and 20th centuries saw major advances with the work of Mathieu Orfila, the father of forensic toxicology, industrial safety regulations, environmental awareness sparked by Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, and modern developments in molecular toxicology and risk assessment. Less

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Ancient and Medieval Texts

Earliest toxicological writings on plant and animal poisons

300 CE

A work dating to around 300 CE, with portions possibly dating to the fourth century BCE, is devoted to the study of plant and animal poisons, including their classification, identification, and treatment, representing one of the earliest known texts in the field.

Image source: Toxicology

Earliest toxicological writings on plant and animal poisons

Ibn Wahshiyya writes the Book on Poisons

900 CE

A work attributed to the 10th century author Ibn Wahshiyya called the Book on Poisons describes various toxic substances and poisonous recipes that can be made using magic, reflecting early medieval engagement with toxic substances.

Maimonides writes Kitāb al-Sumūm wa-l-Mutaḥarriz min al-Adwiya al-Qattāla

1100 CE

In the 12th century, Jewish physician Maimonides wrote Kitāb al-Sumūm wa-l-Mutaḥarriz min al-Adwiya al-Qattāla ('Book on Poisons and the One Who Guards Against Deadly Drugs'), which discussed the treatment of poisoning.

Khagendra Mani Darpana describes poisonous plants

1300 CE

A 14th century Kannada poetic work attributed to the Jain prince Mangarasa, Khagendra Mani Darpana, describes several poisonous plants, showing awareness of plant toxicity in medieval South Asian literature.

Foundations of Modern Toxicology

Paracelsus lays foundations for modern toxicology

1500

The 16th-century Swiss physician Paracelsus is considered 'the father' of modern toxicology, based on his rigorous approach to understanding the effects of substances on the body, including his famous principle that the dose makes the poison.

Image source: Paracelsus

Paracelsus lays foundations for modern toxicology

Word 'toxicology' first attested in Neo-Latin

1799

The word toxicology is a neoclassical compound from Neo-Latin, first attested c. 1799, from the combining forms toxico- + -logy, which in turn come from the Ancient Greek words toxikos, meaning 'poisonous', and logos, meaning 'subject matter'.

Mathieu Orfila publishes Traité des poisons

1813

Mathieu Orfila is considered the modern father of toxicology, having given the subject its first formal treatment in 1813 in his Traité des poisons, also called Toxicologie générale.

Image source: Mathieu Orfila

Mathieu Orfila publishes Traité des poisons

Jean Stas isolates plant poisons from human tissue

1850

In 1850, Jean Stas became the first person to successfully isolate plant poisons from human tissue, a landmark achievement in forensic toxicology that enabled poisoning to be proven after death.

Image source: Jean Stas

Jean Stas isolates plant poisons from human tissue

Regulatory Advances

FDA publishes Redbook 2000 guidance document

2000

The FDA's Redbook 2000 exemplifies the continued evolution of regulatory toxicology, serving as a pivotal guidance document for toxicological principles in assessing food additives and ingredients, ensuring public health protections aligned with contemporary scientific rigor.

Image source: Food and Drug Administration

FDA publishes Redbook 2000 guidance document

BLS projects 21% growth for biological scientists

2008 - 2018

The Bureau of Labor Statistics noted that jobs for biological scientists, which generally include toxicologists, were expected to increase by 21% between 2008 and 2018, due partly to research and development growth in biotechnology as well as budget increases for basic and medical research in biological science.

Image source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

BLS projects 21% growth for biological scientists

Modern Methods and Alternatives to Animal Testing

Report envisions shift from animal testing to in vitro methods

2007

The 2007 National Academy of Sciences report argued that advances in toxicogenomics, bioinformatics, systems biology, epigenetics, and computational toxicology could transform toxicity testing from a system based on whole-animal testing to one founded primarily on in vitro methods using cells, cell lines, or cellular components, preferably of human origin. As of 2014 that vision was still unrealized.

Image source: National Academy of Sciences

Report envisions shift from animal testing to in vitro methods

National Academy of Sciences publishes toxicity testing vision report

2007

In 2007 the American NGO National Academy of Sciences published a report called 'Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century: A Vision and a Strategy', opening with the statement: 'Change often involves a pivotal event that builds on previous history and opens the door to a new era.'

EU prohibits animal testing for cosmetics

2013

In some cases shifts away from animal studies have been mandated by law or regulation; the European Union prohibited use of animal testing for cosmetics in 2013, marking a major regulatory step toward alternatives in safety assessment.

Image source: Testing cosmetics on animals

EU prohibits animal testing for cosmetics

Animal testing still provides unique information as of 2014

2014

As of 2014, animal testing provides information that is not available by other means about how substances function in a living organism, underscoring why whole-animal studies remained central despite growing interest in alternatives.

Image source: Animal testing

Animal testing still provides unique information as of 2014

Deep learning models match in vitro experiment performance

2020

Within the Toxicology in the 21st Century project, the best predictive models were identified to be Deep Neural Networks, Random Forest, and Support Vector Machines, which can reach the performance of in vitro experiments.

ToxCast analysis finds 19% of chemicals predicted developmentally toxic

2020

Major findings from the analysis of the ToxCast_STM dataset published in 2020 include that 19% of 1065 chemicals yielded a prediction of developmental toxicity, providing large-scale insight into chemical hazards.

Image source: Deep learning

ToxCast analysis finds 19% of chemicals predicted developmentally toxic

ToxCast assays reach 79%–82% accuracy versus animal models

2020

The 2020 ToxCast_STM analysis showed assay performance reached 79%–82% accuracy with high specificity (> 84%) but modest sensitivity (< 67%) when compared with in vivo animal models of human prenatal developmental toxicity, with sensitivity improving under more stringent weights-of-evidence requirements applied to the animal studies.

ToxCast reveals mechanistic associations with developmental toxicity

2020

Statistical analysis of the most potent chemical hits on specific biochemical targets in ToxCast revealed positive and negative associations with the STM response, providing insights into the mechanistic underpinnings of the targeted endpoint and its biological domain.

Key Facts

  1. Paracelsus (1493-1541) established the foundational principle of toxicology: 'the dose makes the poison,' recognizing that any substance can be toxic at sufficient quantities.
  2. Mathieu Orfila (1787-1853), often called the father of forensic toxicology, published the first systematic treatise on poisons in 1814 and developed methods for detecting poisons in biological tissues.
  3. Ancient texts such as the Ebers Papyrus (c. 1550 BCE) and writings by Dioscorides documented known poisons and their antidotes, forming early toxicological knowledge.
  4. Rachel Carson's 1962 book 'Silent Spring' exposed the dangers of pesticides like DDT, launching the modern environmental toxicology movement.
  5. The thalidomide disaster of the late 1950s and early 1960s, which caused severe birth defects, led to stricter drug safety regulations and modern requirements for teratogenicity testing.

Source

This History of Toxicology timeline was generated with the help of AI, using information found on the internet.

We work hard to keep these timelines accurate, but mistakes do get through. If you spot one, email us at [email protected] and we'll fix it for future visitors.

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