A Brief History of Herbal Medicine

The practice of using herbal medicine is as old as Humanity itself. The earliest evidence of using herbs as a medicine dates back as far as 13,000 B.C. according to carbon dating the Lascaux cave paintings in southern France depict different herbs and the people's familiarity with them. The tradition of herbal medicine was taught orally and later was written down and recorded, the following are a few examples of the written history of herbal medicines.

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More recently 2,400 B.C in Mesopotamia in the ancient city of Nippur the Sumerians wrote using cuneiform onto clay tablets which listed over 250 plants and their medicinal uses. Ayurvedic herbal medicine was written down around 1,500 B.C with the four main Vedas: Yajur veda, Rig veda, Sam veda and Atharva veda. The healing properties of the herbs were written down in poems called Shlokas. The Rig veda is the most well known, it describes around 70 plants and 1028 Shlokas (poems). The Yajur and Atharva vedas describe around 370 useful medicinal plants. Agnivesha compiled the knowledge from the vedas, and it was later edited by Charaka and other scholars. Today Charaka Samhita describes all aspects of Ayurvedic medicine. Chinese herbal medicine was written down around 2,500 B.C, the book Pen T'Sao (grasses and roots) was written by the Emperor Shen, in the book there are 365 medicinal plants listed, many are still in use today. The most famous Chinese medical text is know as the Yellow Emperor's classic which was written around 300 B.C. The Yellow Emperor's classic is considered a fundamental medical text, which is still in use today.

Western herbal medicine was partly influenced by earlier Egyptian tradition, especially the writings from the Ebers Papyrus 1,550 B.C, which listed over 850 herbal medicines, and later on the writings of Hippocrates, known as the Father of medicine in 400 B.C and others such as Pliny and Dioscorides. Dioscorides was the most influential Greek writer of the Materia medica of herbal medicines. His Materia medica, which consists of five volumes was used well into the 1700's, such was the influence of Dioscorides. 1100 A.D the Arab world was the center of medicinal knowledge, Avicenna (Ibn Sina) wrote his famous Canon of Medicine which was 5 books. The book was later published in Rome in 1593, such was the importance and influence of this medicinal text. 1649 A.D Nicholas Culpeper wrote is text Culpeper's Herbal, which is still available today. 1800s Samuel Thomson was a famous Herbalist and Botanist, due to his influence he is often referred to as the father of American Herbalism.

Modern day Herbal Medicine has moved away from the empirical based teachings and methodologies and is now more evidence based. By using an evidence based system we are able to isolate the effective compounds in the herbs and through clinical trails find the most effective treatment for patients. Through Clinical research it has been found that certain herbs are toxic and dangerous to take internally. This research and development has improved the safety of herbal medicine and can only be of benefit for patients.