The Rise of Herbal Medicine: A Historical Overview

Herbal medicine is an ancient folk practice that is as old as civilization. Since the dawn of modern man, hundreds, even thousands, of wild and cultivated medicinal herbs have been used to treat all manner of ailments and disease. The use of herbs for medicinal purposes was universal among pre-historic and non-industrialized societies. This ancient herbal craft is being rediscovered by more and more people today.

Archeological evidence from present-day Iraq suggests that as early as 60,000 years ago, Neanderthal man used herbs for medicinal purposes. Many millennia later, archeologists discovered rock paintings in the Lascaux caves in France, which depicted the use of medicinal herbs as healing agents. These have been radiocarbon dated to between 13,000 - 25,000 BC.

Anthropologists theorize that over time, and with trial and error, a small base of herbal medical knowledge would have been accumulated within prehistoric tribal communities. As this knowledge base expanded over the generations, the specialized role of the herbalist emerged. The process would likely have occurred in varying manners within a wide diversity of cultures.

The historical use of herbal medicinals was recorded by the great herbalists and physicians of the ancient world. The ancient Egyptians left us the earliest known writings on herbal medicinals. These were recorded on fragments of papyrus and clay tablets that date back 5,000 years. In 1500 BC, an Egyptian text called Papyrus Ebers was written, detailing over 700 herbal remedies.

In Europe, ancient scholars such as Theophrastus, Pliny, Galen, Hippocrates and Dioscorides also wrote about herbal remedies. In the first century BC, the Greek physician Dioscorides wrote a treatise called "materia medica". It was translated into Latin and Arabic and became the basis for many later works. It was the most authoritative and influential work on medicinal plants until the late 17th century.