Donkey milk knowledge archive · Historical source

Pliny the Elder: donkey milk in the books on remedies of the Naturalis historia

In Book 28 of his Natural History, Pliny calls donkey milk “the most efficacious” milk and lists around a dozen uses attributed to it at the time – as a reproduction of other people’s doctrines.

Historical account: The information reproduced here reflects the knowledge of its time. It is not scientifically substantiated, is not a recommendation and cannot be applied to today. Donkey milk is a food, not a remedy.
c. AD 77Roman EmpireAncient natural history
Author
Pliny the Elder (Gaius Plinius Secundus)
Work
Naturalis historia
Passage
Book 28, §§ 123–130 (milk section) and § 158; further individual passages incl. §§ 196, 204, 211
Time & place
c. AD 77 · Roman Empire
Type of source
Ancient natural history

In the original words

What the original says

dulcissimum ab hominis camelinum, efficacissimum ex asinis.

After human milk, camel’s milk is the sweetest, and that of she-asses the most efficacious.

LatinNH 28.123

sunt inter exempla qui asininum bibendo liberati sint podagra chiragraque.

Among the examples cited are people who are said to have been freed from gout of the feet and hands by drinking donkey milk.

LatinNH 28.125

English rendering: our own translation by the DON DONKEY’S editorial team, following the sense of the text.

Background

Who, when, what kind of text

Books 28 to 32 of the “Naturalis historia” deal with remedies obtained from humans and animals. In them, Pliny compiles what Greek and Roman physicians, folk medicine and also practitioners of magic (“magi”) had handed down. He himself was not a physician and did not verify the information.

In the critical apparatus, the editor Karl Mayhoff (Teubner, Leipzig 1906) refers for many milk passages to parallel statements in Dioscorides, Celsus and others. Pliny thus drew on the same medical literature used by other ancient specialist authors.

The information reflects the medicine of the 1st century AD, which was based on humoral theory and defined clinical pictures differently from today’s medicine.

Content

What the source reports about donkey milk

In the coherent milk section (§§ 123–130), Pliny classifies the types of milk: human milk is the most nourishing, after it camel’s milk is the sweetest, but donkey milk is considered the most efficacious. He then lists uses attributed to donkey milk: there were examples of people freed from gout by donkey milk (§ 125); it was given as an antidote after swallowing gypsum, white lead, sulphur or mercury, as well as for constipation in fever and as a gargle for a sore throat (§ 128).

In § 158 he repeats its use as an antidote for certain plant and animal substances and announces that he will name many more uses. Indeed, donkey milk appears at around a dozen points in the rest of Book 28, for example for stomach complaints (§ 196), shortness of breath (§ 197), diarrhoea (§ 204) and tenesmus (§ 211).

Pliny also names limits: at the end of the milk section (§ 130) he lists conditions for which milk was generally considered unsuitable, including headaches, liver and spleen complaints and fever – apart from its use for purging.

At a glance

Figures & facts from the source

§§ 123–130coherent milk section in Book 28
≈ 12individual passages on donkey milk in Book 28
4swallowed substances against which donkey milk was given according to § 128
2forms of gout in § 125 (podagra, chiragra)
1906year of publication of Mayhoff’s edition

Critical assessment

How reliable is this source?

A compilation, not a test

Pliny compiles doctrines and individual cases (“sunt inter exempla”). His statements show what reputation donkey milk had in Roman medicine, but they are not verified observations.

Heterogeneous origins

In the same book, medical advice stands alongside magical practices. Individual statements therefore cannot simply be read as the medical consensus of the time.

Not transferable

The disease concepts of the time do not coincide with today’s diagnoses. None of the uses mentioned is scientifically substantiated today; the passages must not be understood as a recommendation.

Value for the history of medicine

It is precisely the abundance of passages that makes the book an important testimony: in antiquity, donkey milk was regarded as a special milk and was clearly distinguished from cow’s, goat’s or sheep’s milk.

Our assessment

Pliny is a detailed ancient source on donkey milk in medicine. We reproduce his list as a testimony to ancient ideas and stress: today, none of these uses is substantiated.

References

Sources to check

More sources and studies in the research archive. Summarised by the DON DONKEY’S editorial team, as of November 2026.