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Medicinal Herbs In History
By Linda Thompson
Unlocking the healing powers in plants is an ancient idea. Early inhabitants of all continents recognized their dependence on nature for their health. Led by trial and error, instinct and experience humans have long used hundreds, if not thousands, of native plants for treatment of various illnesses dating back to ancient times. There is confirmed evidence of the use of herbs in medicine dating back 60,000 years ago to the burial site of a Neanderthal man discovered in 1960 in a cave in Iraq. Found buried with the man were eight species of plants, seven of which are medincinal plants still widely used throughout the world today. Cultures from all parts of the globe have medicine histories that include the use of plants.
Even in ancient cultures, people scientifically collected and detailed information on herbs developing well-defined herbal pharmacopoeias. Even into the 20th century much of the medical documentation of scientific medicine had its basis in native herbal lore. Many modern day drugs, including aspirin, curare, strychnine, ergot, , taxol and vincristine are of herbal origin and many of the pharmaceuticals currently available to western medical practitioners have a long history of use as herbal remedies, including opium, aspirin, digitalis, and quinine. About twenty-five percent of the prescription drugs dispensed by public pharmacies in the United States contain at least one active ingredient derived from plant material.
Middle East medicine: The invention of writing was the focal point allowing herbal knowledge to accumulate and grow. The first written records detailing the use of herbs in the treatment of illness are the Mesopotamian clay tablet writings and the Egyptian papyrus. About 2000 B.C. the first known materia medica was compiled - an ancient form of today's United States Pharmacopoeia containing 250 herbal drugs. The Ebers Papyrus, the most important of the preserved Egyptian manuscripts, was written around 1500 B.C. and includes much earlier information. It contains 876 prescriptions made up of more than 500 different substances, including many herbs.
Greece and Rome: One of the earliest materia medica was the Rhizotomikon, written by a pupil of Aristotle. Unfortunately, the book is now lost. Other Greek and Roman compilations followed, but none was as significant or influential as that written by Dioscorides in the 1st century A.D., better known by its Latin name De Materia Medica. This text contains 950 curative substances, of which 600 are plant products and the rest are of animal or mineral origin.
Muslim world: The Arabs preserved and built on the body of information from the Greco-Roman era as they learned of new remedies from distant places. They even introduced the Chinese technique of chemically preparing minerals to the West. The principal storehouse of the Muslim materia medica is the text of Jami of Ibn Baiar (died 1248 A.D.), which lists more than 2,000 substances, including many plant products. Eventually this entire body of knowledge was reintroduced to Europe by Christian doctors traveling with the Crusaders.
East India. India underwent a comparable course in the development of its medicine. The healing that took place before India's Ayurvedic medical collection of writings was akin to that of ancient Egypt or China (i.e., illness was seen as a punishment from the gods for a particular sin). Ayurvedic medicine emerged during the rise of Upanishads, Buddhism, and other schools of thought in India. Herbs played an essential role in Ayurvedic medicine. The primary Ayurvedic book on internal medicine, the Characka Samhita, describes 582 herbs. The central book on surgery, the Sushruta Samhita, lists some 600 herbal remedies. Most experts agree that these books are at least 2,000 years old.
China and Japan: The earliest written substantiation of the medicinal use of herbs in China consists of a collection of writings consisting of 11 medical works recovered from a burial site in Hunan province. The burial itself is dated 168 B.C., and the texts (written on silk) appear to have been composed before the end of the 3rd century B.C. By the Later Han Dynasty (25-220 A.D.), medicine had changed dramatically in China. The Classic of the Materia Medica, compiled no earlier than the 1st century A.D. was the first Chinese book to focus on the description of individual herbs.
Since the writing of the Classic of the Materia Medica almost 2,000 years ago it has been progressively growing the most recent compilation, The Encyclopedia of Traditional Chinese Medicine Substances is the culmination of a 25-year research project conducted by the Jiangsu College of New Medicine; it contains 5,767 entries and is the most definitive compilation of China's herbal tradition to date.
Traditional Chinese medicine was brought to Japan via Korea, and Chinese- influenced Korean medicine was adapted by the Japanese. Toward the end of the Muromachi period (1333-1573 A.D.) the Japanese began to develop a form of traditional oriental medicine, called kampo medicine. As traditional Chinese medicine was modified and integrated into kampo medicine, herbal medicine was markedly simplified.
The use of herbs to treat disease is almost universal among non-industrialized societies. In the western world a number of practices have come to dominate herbal medicine at the end of the twentieth century they are:
Western – Based on Greek and Roman sources
Ayurvedic – From India
Chinese herbal medicine (Chinese herbology)
The search for drugs and supplements acquired from plants has hastened in recent years. Botanists, microbiologists, natural-products chemists and pharmacologists are combing the Earth for plant chemicals and leads that could be developed for treatment of various diseases and new plants continue to be seriously investigated for medicinal properties.
About the Author
Discover more information and articles on Herbs used in Western, Chinese and Ayurvedic Medicine by visiting http://www.herbs4medicine.com
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