From The Earliest Times, medicinal plants have been crucial in sustaining the health and the well being of mankind. Linseed, for example, provided its harvesters with a nutritious cooking oil, fuel, a cosmetic balm for the skin and fibre to make fabric. Additionally it was used to treat conditions such as bronchitis, respiratory catarrh, boils and a number of digestive problems. Given the life-enhancing benefits that this and so many other plants provided, it is hardly surprising that most cultures believed plants to have magical as well as medicinal properties. It is equally reasonable to assume that for tens of thousands of years herbs were probably used as much for their ritual magical powers as for their medicinal qualities. A 60,000-year-old burial site excavated in Iraq, for instance, was found to contain eight different medicinal plants, including ephedrine. The inclusion of the plants in the tomb suggests they had a supernatural significance as well as having medicinal benefits.
In some cultures, plants were considered to have souls. Even Aristotle, the 4th-century BC Greek philosopher, thought that plants had a ?psyche?, albeit of a lesser order than the human soul.
In Hinduism, which dates back to at least 1500 BC, many plants are still sacred to specific divinities. For example, the Bael tree is said to shelter Shiva, the god of health, beneath its branches.
As civilizations developed from 3000 BC onwards in Egypt, the Middle East, India and China, so the use of herbs became more sophisticated, and the first written accounts of medicinal plants were made. The Egyptian Ebers papyrus of 1500 BC is the earliest surviving example. It lists dozens of medicinal plants, their uses and related spells and incantations. The herbs include myrrh, castor oil and garlic.
In India, the Vedas, epic poems written c. 1500 BC, also contain rich material on the herbal lore of that time. The Charaka Samhita, written by the physician Charaka. This medical treatise includes details of around 350 herbal medicines, followed the Vedas in about 700 BC. Amongst them are Visnaga, an herb of Middle Eastern origin that has recently proven effective in the treatment of asthma, and Gotu Kola, which has long been used to treat leprosy.
In medieval Europe, the Doctrine of Signatures stated that there was a connection between how a plant reflected God?s ?signature? and how it might be used medicinally. For example, the mottled leaves of Lungwort were thought to resemble lung tissue ? even today the plant is used to treat ailments of the respiratory tract.
In a similar vein, native peoples of the Andes in South America believe that Mama Coca, a spirit who must be respected and placated if the leaves are to be harvested and used, protects the coca plant.
Even in Western cultures a belief in plant spirits linger. Until this century, British farm workers would not cut down elder trees for fear of arousing the anger of the Elder Mother, the spirit who lived in and protected the tree.
The theories of Galenic, Ayurvedic (Indian) and Chinese traditional medicine, however, would have meant practically nothing to most of the world?s population. As is still the case today for some indigenous peoples who have little access to conventional medicines, in the past most villages and communities relied on the services of local ?wise? men and women for medical treatment. These healers were almost certainly ignorant of the conventions of scholastic medicine, yet through apprenticeship and practice in treating illness, attending childbirth and making use of locally growing herbs as a natural pharmacy, they developed a high level of practical medicinal knowledge.
We tend to underestimate the medical skills of apparently undeveloped communities - particularly during the so-called Dark Ages in medieval Europe but it is evident that many people had a surprisingly sophisticated understanding of plant medicine. For example, recent excavations at an 11th century monastic hospital in Scotland revealed that the monks were using exotic herbs such as opium poppy and marijuana as painkillers and anaesthetics. Likewise, the herbalists in Myddfai, a village in South Wales, obviously knew of Hippocrates? writings in the 6th century AD and used a wide variety of medicinal plants. The texts that have been handed down from that herbal tradition are filled with an engaging blend of superstition and wisdom. From a 13th-century manuscript it was recommended that, to strengthen the sight, take Eyebright and Red Fennel, a handful of each, and half a handful of Rue, distil, and wash your eye daily.
Paracelsus? advocacy of local herbs was later fiercely espoused by Nicholas Culpeper 1616-1654. Wounded during the English Civil War fighting for the Commonwealth, Culpeper championed the needs of the ordinary people who could afford neither the services of a doctor nor the expensive imported herbs and formulations that doctors generally prescribed. Drawing to some degree on Dioscorides, Arabian physicians and Paracelsus, Culpeper developed a medical system that blended astrology and sound personal experience of the therapeutic uses of local plants. His herbal became an instant ?bestseller? and appeared in many subsequent editions. The first herbal published in North America, in 1700, was an edition of his herbal. While the popularity of The English Physician was notable, other herbals also found a place in households. The development of the printing press in the 15th century brought herbal medicine into homes on a wide scale. Texts such as Dioscorides? De Materia Medica were printed for the first time, and throughout Europe herbals were published and ran through many editions.
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