The earliest source of Greek medical knowledge is Homer. Two epic poems attributed to him, belonging to 8th century BC, mention treatment of injuries of wounded warriors. De Historia Plantarum and De Causis Plantarum by Theophrastus (340 BC) and Dioscorides’s De Materia Medica (78 AD) with several recipes same as the Ebers Papyrus contain approximately 80% plant medicines, 10% mineral- and 10% animal-derived drugs. While De Historia Plantarum founded the science of Botany and was considered important for herbalists and botanists of later centuries, Dioscorides’s compendium of more than 500 plants remained in Europe an authoritative reference into 17th century. Pliny’s natural history (60 AD) lists about 1,000 plants of Roman period and Galen’s (130–200 AD) principles of preparing and compounding medicines ruled the western world for 1,500 years and his name is associated with galenicals, a class of pharmaceuticals compounded by mechanical means. Greek and Roman medical practices as preserved in the writings of Hippocrates and—especially—Galen provided the pattern for later western medicine.