History of Medicine: Introduction to Pharmacy Origins

Vocabulary flashcards covering the key figures, cultures, and transitions from supernatural to natural and synthetic remedies in the history of medicine and pharmacy origins.

Hippocrates

A Greek physician who, around 400 B.C., developed a scientific approach to medicine that emphasized diagnosing illness through careful observation of a patient's condition rather than supernatural or external elements.

Ancient Sumerians

An ancient culture that used about 250 natural medicines derived from plants, many of which are still used today.

Shen Nung

A Chinese Emperor around 3000 B.C. who practiced trial-and-error drug testing by consuming plants and other natural materials to establish 365 herbs for health treatment.

Synthetic drugs

Man-made drugs developed over the past two centuries that often provide advantages in cost, effect, and availability, and are used more than twice as often as naturally produced drugs today.

365 herbs

The set of plant-based remedies believed to have been established for health treatment by Chinese Emperor Shen Nung through natural material testing.