Though science has been a fantastic tool for developing conveniences in our life it is threatening the very existence of this planet. On retrospection it becomes sufficiently clear that scientific progress-enabled modern medical achievements are largely the result of a ‘one-sided’ approach to nature and its ways. When we look at the epistemological basis of…
Before 1900 most drugs in orthodox medicine too were plant-derived pure chemicals as against unprocessed plant-based formulations and preparations in other traditional medical streams. Pharmacists dominated the investigation of botanical drugs during the 1700s and 1800s. Interested physicians, pharmacists documented the sources of different plant drugs, making considerable contribution to the nascent science of botany. Combining…
The second millennium in Europe however saw the beginning of a slow erosion of the preeminent position held by plants as sources of therapeutic effects. This began with the ‘Black death’ due to plague and syphilis that raged through Europe, which the then dominant Four Element (referring to the four humors) medical system seemed powerless…
Herbarium Apuleius (480–1050), one of the most copied manuscripts with uses of over 100 herbs, and the Leech Book of Bald are some of the Herbals of ‘Leech’ craft—the collective English word for medical practitioners. Some of the earliest herbals known are listed below:
Medical schools known as Bimaristan began to appear from the 9th century in the medieval Islamic world among Persians and Arabs and they were generally more advanced than those in medieval Europe at the time. As a trading culture, the Arab travellers had access to medical knowledge and plant material from distant places such as…
In early medieval Europe, monasteries tended to become local centres of medical knowledge, and their herb gardens provided the raw materials for simple treatment of common disorders. Herbalists used to wander and provide herbal remedies to the sick and needy. Particularly well-known herbalists of medieval Europe were the so-called wise-women, who prescribed herbal remedies often…
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.…
The first Chinese herbal book, the Shennong Ben Cao Jing, compiled during the Han Dynasty but dating back to a much earlier period, possibly 2700 BC, lists 365 medicinal plants and their uses. Succeeding generations augmented on the Shennong Ben Cao Jing, as in the Yaoxing Lun (Treatise on the Nature of Medicinal Herbs), a 7th century Tang Dynasty…
India has a very strong tradition of use of natural materials as drugs. The oldest written records of an even ancient oral tradition, namely the Vedas, mention the virtues of several hundreds of herbs. Many herbs and minerals used in Ayurveda since centuries earlier were later described in written form by ancient herbalists such as…
The use of natural materials for healing is possibly as old as mankind with the oldest evidence dating back to the Neanderthal era (70,000 BC) found in Shanidar Cave of Iraq. People on all continents have used hundreds of indigenous plants for treatment of ailments since prehistoric times. This knowledge could have arisen out of…