Herbal Medicine : A Brief History

Herbal Medicine

The rapid technological advancement in recent years has pushed the civilized world into unbelievable leaps and bounds in medical evolution.  But despite all the conveniences that today’s world afford our daily living, some of us find the time to compare ourselves with our ancestors.  We have almost everything at our fingertips now, everything that the modern world could provide.  Our ancestors had none of any of these and yet we wonder how they were able to sustain and survive especially with diseases that naturally abound.  They had no synthetic drugs including antibiotics that could cure almost any diseases of the contemporary world.  They did not depend on manufactured nutritional supplements to maintain a healthy body.

From this inquiry, they were able to unearth the secret of yesterday’s generation –healing remedies from Mother Nature’s vast collection of plants and vegetation.  Luckily for our present generation, the knowledge about natural healing properties of a multitude of plants has survived even in this technologically advanced world.

The medicinal properties of these plants have been discovered even before man knew how to read or write.  It was probably their natural instinct that pushed them to discover the healing properties of some plants and use them for their different pain and diseases.  Over time, they were able to pass on the knowledge about the medicinal plants from generation to generation.

Even in the ancient civilization like in China 5000 years ago, rhubarb was being used as a purgative even if the ancient Chinese never knew the substances in this herb that produced the cure.  They have also been using Ephedra for asthma even if the ephedrine substance was only discovered in the west in 1887 AD.  It probably helps also that ancient people, especially those in the orient had an uncanny interest in the world of plants.  This is probably why they discovered that some plants have the ability to heal many types of ailments.

King Hammurabi of Babylon was able to utilize the healing properties of mint for constipation even in 18th century BC.  The Indian on the other hand, maintained a system regarding their herbal remedies which is known as Ayurveda.  They had specific instructions, rules and practices in their different prescriptions, remedies and treatments and they followed them strictly.  Doctors of these civilizations were also suggesting even back then that herbal medicine must be taken at night or early in the morning for optimal effect.  Much later, this practice is being confirmed to be accurate.

Ancient Egypt for its part discovered many types of plants for wound disinfecting and healing – from wormwood to saffron and oregano.  They also believed that the coriander in tombs promote health even in the afterlife.  Garlic, mint, opium and indigo had been also recorded in their history as part of the remedies they resort to for varied ailments.

Roman and Greek civilizations had been the foundation of medicine as we know it today.  Even if they just assimilated the knowledge from other cultures, their interest and concern on diseases and their cures using natural and herbal remedy separated the other beliefs on magical or spiritual healing.  Dioscoride, Hippocrates had been part of the recording of medical history that had been very valuable to the evolution of medicine and was especially helpful in pre-medieval civilizations.  A compilation of hundreds of plants with medicinal properties with matching description and remedies were included in De Materia Medica.  It was written by Dioscoride in the 1st century AD.

There had been minimal advancement in medicinal plants in the Dark Ages, just the passing on of information from one generation to the next and from one culture to another.  However, one significant contribution during this time is one of the very important books in the branch of medicine, The Canon.  It was written by Avicenna or Abu Ali al-Husayn ibn Abd Allah Ibn Sina, a Persian doctor and it was a collection of different medicinal plants and their corresponding curative properties.

Another major breakthrough in herbal medicine was in 1527 when Paracelsus from Switzerland demonstrated the concept of active substance in plants.  This has become the basis of other scientists to discover methods and develop process to isolate these active substances which provide the healing properties of the medicinal plant.  In 1640, John Parkinson printed Theatrum Botanicum.  This book tried to provide a systematic classification of herbal medications.  Then 9 years later, Nicholas Culpeper had Physical Directory which until this modern times has been considered the best herbal manual.

In the continuous evolution of science, scientists and doctors discovered and developed various laboratory manufactured drugs for different ailments and illnesses.  Yet, these synthetic medications later on showed negative side effects.  Thus, even in this technologically adept modern world, herbal remedies have survived and are being widely used because of their ability to cure plus the minimal adverse effect they cause.

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