History of Medical Plants

Ebers Papyrus → egyptian

• Ancient egyptian manuscript
• Scroll is over 20m long (110 pages)
• 700+ herbal remedies
• Oldest record of medicinal plant use - written 3550 years ago (1550 BCE)
• The actual content is much older
• Knowledge in the book from VI Dynasty (4500 years ago)
• Discovered by Edwin Smith at Thebes in 1862
• Purchased by Georg Ebers in 1873
• Still used today ex. Castor oil as laxative

Hippocrates → greek

• Father of medicine
• Hippocratic oath still taken by doctors today
• Greeks borrowed knowledge from Egyptian manuscripts (ex. Ebers Papyrus) (2550 years ago) in their own writings
• Discussed over 400 healing plants already mentioned in Ebers Papyrus

Theophrastus → greek

• Student of Aristotle
• Father of botany
• Made “enquiry into plants” about 2300 years ago (300 BCE)
• First work to note morphological similarities between plant species
• Similarities were used to develop a classification system to classify plant families
• His works expanded on Aristotles

Dioscorides (40-90 CE) → greek

• Physician and pharmacologist
• Wrote De Materia Medica (on medical matters) in 77 CE
• Compiled egyptian and early greek information to one writing
• Named 600 medicinal plants and summarized their therapeutic uses

Galen (129-200 CE) → greek

• From pergamon (city in turkey)
• Expanded on early Greek writings, especially Disocorides works
• Created encyclopedia of Greek and Roman medical teachings
• Paid greater attention to pharmacology (administration, dosage, etc)
• Made records on plant drugs and their use

Middle Ages (476-1469)

• Fall of the western Roman Empire in 476 CE
• Religious orders in Europe maintain ancient greek and roman medical knowledge
• Established medicinal plant gardens (physic garden)
• Studied and copied early medical manuscripts

Medical schools

• established during Middle Ages in Europe
• Italy:   * Salerno and university of bologna
• France:   * Montpellier and university of paris
• England:   * Oxford university
• Medical schools back then were not centers of new discoveries, but just storage of past knowledge (repositories of past knowledge)
• Greek and Roman knowledge was passed down through the generations

Constantine the African (1010-1087)

• Muslim from Tanisia
• Studied Islamic medicine in north Africa and Baghdad
• Translated islamic medical texts into Latin for the Salerno school
• New information had a major influence on European medicine
• Islamic medical knowledge reintroduced lost ancient greek and roman knowledge
• Also expanded knowledge base by introducing to information

The renaissance (1470-1670)

• Major advanced in European because of the invention of the printing press (Johannes Gutenberg)   * Printing press allowed for mass circulation of medical information   * Cradle / early years of printing: 1450-1500   * Made incunabula → early printed books

The Age of Herbals

• Occurred during the early renaissance
• Herbal → a book concerned with the material of medicine, in particular materials of plant origin
• A book that looks at what is used as medicine, especially materials made of plants
• Medicine is finally characterized by new discoveries rather than copying ancient works

De historia stirpium (basel, 1542) → other books of the renaissance period

• Author: leonhart Fuchs
• Based on ancient greek and roman writings
• Particularly Dioscorides and Galen
• Considerable updates and new information
• Excellent quality and clear illustrations of botanical accuracy

Commentarii (venice, 1544) → other books of the renaissance period

• Author: pier andrea mattiolo
• Mostly a translation of Dioscorides
• Also has updates and expanded text
• Original had no illustrations which made its use limited (people couldn’t read?)
• Went through many editions that eventually added illustrations
• Translated into many european languages

The new herball (london, 1551) → other books of the renaissance period

• Author: william turner
• Described medicinal plants used in England
• Detailed commentaries on the efficacy of herbal remedies
• Excellent illustration

Cruydeboeck / Book of Herbs (antwerp, 1554) → other books of the renaissance period

• Author: rembert dodoens
• flemish-french
• Went through many editions during the author’s lifetime
• Over 800 illustrations

Herbal (england, 1597) → other books of the renaissance period

• Author: john gerard
• Plagiarized translation of rembert dodoen’s work

Phytognomonica (naples, 1588) → other books of the renaissance period

• Author: Giambattista Porta
• Promoted the idea of “plant indicators”
• A discussion of the Doctrine of Signatures
• Doctrine of Signatures: advanced by Paracelsus (swiss, 1493-1541)
• States that plants take on the appearance of the organ or ailment that they cure
• Ex. heart shaped leaf cures heart ailments
• Ex. yellow juice cures jaundice
• The doctrine is common in many other societies too, not just european
• Ex. ancient chinese medicine
• Ex. Indigenous peoples of western north america

Legacy of Renaissance Medicine - Doctrine of Signatures

• Liverwort → relieves liver trouble
• Snakeroot → antidote for snake venom
• Adder’s tongue → cure for snake bite wounds, inflammation
• Lungwort → cures pulmonary diseases
• Bloodroot → cures blood disorders, induces vomiting
• Wormwood → expels intestinal parasites

Traditional chinese medicine treatments →

• 3 classical treatments, often use di combinations   * Acupuncture → stimulation by needle or pressure of blocked Qi (chi, energy)   * Moxibustion → burning of maxa close to affected energy points to heal.     * Maxa - leaves of mugwort, Artemisia vulgaris     * Always paired with acupuncture   * Herbal medicine → use of plant material to treat the root cause of a disease     * Plant material is almost always a combination of herbs     * Herbal formula used is not standardized, but made to order with the knowledge of a professional herbalist

Traditional chinese medicine: holistic

• Emphasis on the body and psyche as a whole rather than just disease symptoms
• Based on the application of knowledge accumulated over thousands of years
• Differs from western medicine since western medicine is not holistic

Chinese medicine vs Western Medicine

• Chinese:   * Based on: philosophy   * Approach: holistic   * Health: cultivate internal “life force” (chi, Qi)   * Treats: root causes   * Medicine: phenomenal   * Studies: syndromes   * Treatment: adaptive
• Western:   * Based on: physical science   * Approach: analytic   * Health: eliminate disease, external pathogens   * Treats: symptoms   * Medicine: structural   * Studies: anatomy   * Treatment: standardized

History of traditional chinese medicine

• Origins in 2 ancient emperors
• Debate as to whether they actually existed
• If they did, they lived about 4500-4700 years ago
• Huangdi (yellow emperor) → Huangdi neijing (canon of internal medicine)
• Shennong (fire emperor) → Shennong Ben Cao Jong (classic of herbal medicine)
• Evidence suggest these were actually written during the Han Dynasty (206 BCE - 220 BCE)
• Tradition at the time was to assign authorship to great teachers or important people from the past who influenced the true author
• These were the first great Chinese Herbal compilations
• Established a standardized medical paradigm and philosophy throughout China

Prior to the great chinese herbal compilations

• Many centuries of chinese medical practice preceded the 2 compilations
• No standard traditional medical practice
• Rival medical schools based on Taoist, Buddhist, and Confusian beliefs existed
• This created regional differences based on the different medical families
• Yellow emperor's Canon of internal medicine offered a compromise
• Bridged Taoist and COnsian schools to form a single system of medical philosophy and practice

Han Dynasty (206 CE - 220 CE)

• When a number of medical advances were made
• Zhang Zhongjing AKA Hippocrates of china
• Produced shang zabing lun (treatise on cold, pathogenesis and miscellaneous diseases)
• Medical classic equal to the Yellow Emperor’s Canon of internal medicine

Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)

• Great medical advances also made during this time period
• Pen-ts'ao Kang-mu (compendium of materia medica_
• Compiled by Li Shizhen
• Summarized and discussed the medicinal properties and uses of over 1880 plants
• Also discussed animal substances and minerals used in chinese medicine

Islamic medicine → mesopotamia

• Sumerian clay tablets
• The earliest, still existing, medicinal recipes
• From mesopotamia (present day Iraq and adjacent regions)
• Oldest is about 4200 years agp
• Refer to similar works dating 5500 years ago
• This indicates a long history of medicinal plant use
• Objective pharmacology describing various medicinal plant preparations

Islamic medicine history - early 8th century

• Developed in the early 8th century
• Happened at the same time as the rise of the arabic and persian muslim cultures
• Various cultures meeting along trade routes in the Near East region provided information on herbal preparations and remedies from many different sources
• Thus, islamic medicine is a evolved form various cultures including africa, mesopotamia, india, persia, egypt, greece
• Knowledge from various cultures allowed for organization of all medical knowledge
• Ex. Hunayn ibn ishaq translated the works Galen into Arabic in the late 800s

Islamic medicine history - 8th - 11th century

• Many advances to islamic medicine, eclipsing european medicine
• Islamic empire extended across north africa and to the iberian peninsula (present day spain and portugal)

Ibn al-Jazzar → north africa (tunisia)

• Produced Kitab al-adwiya (Treatise on simple drugs)
• Translated into latin, greek, and hebrew
• Latin version (liber de gradibus) was translate by constantine the african
• Completed Zad al-musafir wa-qut al-hadir (provisions for the traveller and nourishment of the settled)
• Medical encyclopedia in 7 volumes
• Contained knowledge of islamic, greek, and roman medicine
• Translated into latin as Viaticum peregrinantis by constantine the african
• Used in medieval europe and the salerno and montpellier medical schools

Ibn Sina (980-1037)

• Most highly regarded persian physician
• Latinized name: Avicenna
• Authored over 200 treatises on lots of subjects, mostly on medicine
• Most famous work: Al-Qunun al-Tibb (canon of medicine)
• Treatise on medicine and medicinal plants
• Influenced by greek and roman medical transition
• Also contained new information from islamic and indian sources
• Translated into latin in the 12th century, with 21 editions in europe by 1500

Ayurvedic (Indian Hindu) Medicine

• Similar to chinese medicine since they both use a holistic approach
• Recognizes 2 treatment levels:
• Ministerial level → herbal remedy for each ailment (cure specific illness)
• Sovereign level → herbal mixtures or potions to defeat all ministries of illness (cure all illness)
• Proponents of ayurvedic medicine say western medicine only focuses on ministerial level but sovereign cures are required to treat the root causes of ministerial level ailments

Ayurvedic medicine → stages of Treatment

• Herbal preparations play a critical role in all three treatment stages

1. Cleaning (shodan)    ○ Purging, blood cleaning, nasal cleaning    ○ Removes body’s toxins
2. Palliation (shaman)    ○ Taking of herbs, fasting, chanting, yoga, meditation, and sunning    ○ Achieves balance of doshas    ● Doshas → body structures and metabolisms which are determined individually by an ayurvedic practitioner prior to treatment
3. Rejuvenation (rasayana)    ○ Use herbal tonics to revitalize the metabolism

Ayurvedic history

• Begins with RIGVEDA
• Ancient storage of human knowledge
• Likely written between 1700 and 1100 BCE
• 1028 hymns contained within, praising the virtues of the divine soma   * Soma → bloomless, rootless, leafless plant (or substance) having divine and mystical properties
• Written in central Asia (present day northern Iran)
• Brought to indian subcontinent by Aryan peoples about 3500 years ago

Ayurveda (1000 BCE)

• Detailed account of plant drugs and their uses
• The foundation of medical science in Hindu India
• 8 sections dealing with internal medicine, surgery, head and neck, toxicology, mental disorders, pediatrics, geriatrics, and aphrodisiacs
• Followed by 2 expanded works
• Sushruta Samhita (suhruta’s compendium) → detailed text of surgery, therapeutics, and medicinal plants
• Caraka Sanhita (Charaka’s Compendium) → 12 chapters on medical plants known to the ancient Hindus
• Influences by early Greek, Roman, and Islamic medicine

Greeks and Indians

• Met during the time of Alexander the Great (356-323 BCE)
• Ayurvedic medicine was then at its peak
• Advanced knowledge of drug therapy and toxicology
• Dioscorides
• Mentions a number of indian plants not known in Europe
• Smoking datura for asthma
• Strychnine to induce paralysis
• Croton as a purgative
• Romans later developed an extensive trade in indian drugs
• This led to Pliny commenting on the high price of importing drugs and spices from the indian subcontinent

Buddhism and Ayurvedic Medicine

• Advent of buddhism in india (2000 years ago) brought many changes to ayurvedic medicine
• Surgery was viewed as a form of violence and was banned
• More additions to herbal knowledge
• Establishment of medical plant gardens (physic gardens)
• Buddhism spread ayurvedic medicine to sri lanka, nepal, tibet, mongolia, china, korea, and japan
• Declined during invasions of the indian subcontinent
• First the greeks, then the scythians, and then the islamic arabs
• The islamic arabs introduced islamic medicine to india
• Ayurvedic medicine was already in decline when they came

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