Medicinal Plants Historical

Medicinal Plants Historical

Primitive humans experimentally sampled many kinds of plants in their search for nourishment. Medicinal plants that were palatable were used for food; those with toxic or unpleasant effects were avoided or used against enemies; others that produced physiological effects such as perspiration, defecation, healing, or hallucination were saved for medicinal purposes and divination. Over a period of thousands of years, people learned to use a variety of plants as medicines for different ailments and become medicinal plants.




Use in History
Over 4,000 years ago, according to tradition, the Chinese emperor Chi'en Nung put together a book (herbal) of medicinal plants called Pen Tsao. It contained descriptions of more than 300 plants, several of which are still used in medicine. During the same era and later, the Sumerians recorded prescription on clay tablets, while the Egyptians recorded exotic plants ingredients in Ebers Papyrus. The Greeks and the Romans derived some of their contributions are recorded in De Materia Medica by Dioscorides and the 37-volume natural history written by Pliny the Elder. Some of these earlier works are known to us through translations into Arabic by Rhazes and Avicenna. The knowledge of medicinal plants was further nurtured by monks in Europe who studied and grew medicinal plants and translated the Arabic works.
The first "licensed" apothecary shops opened in Baghdad in the 9th century. by the 13th century, London became a major trading center in herbs and spices. Much adulteration occurred in this trade , because proper standards and quality control of medicinal plants had not been established. Poorly identified plants and substitutes for true medical herbs were sold everywhere. In 1753, Carolus Linnaeus introduced the binomial system of plant nomenclature, which helped in the identification of plants. With the subsequent publication of pharmacopoeias, the method of identification and the standard of quality for each drug was clearly defined.
The present trend to replace crude plant drugs with their pure active principles started with the pioneering work in the 18th century of Karl Scheele, who isolated organic acids from medicinal plants. This achievement was followed by the isolation of morphine from opium by friedrich Serturner and quinine from cinchona bark by Pierre Pelletier and Josep Caventou. These and similar discoveries opened the door to the field of phytochemistry. Today a vast number of modern drugs are still derived from natural sources; approximately 25% of all prescription contain one or more active ingredients from medicinal plants.
Modern medicine also requires ongoing research in various fields of science as well as the development of clinical procedures and technologies.