Herbal medicine is very old, and therapeutic roots stretch back to ancient Egypt in what was then called Hemet or Tamara.
A written herb study dates back over 5,000 years to the Sumerians, who have described well-proven drugs for plants such as laurel, cumin and thyme.
The ancient Egyptians, who themselves were the actual descendants of close mythical and prehistoric Sumerian civilizations, deserve to have the earliest holistic systems of medicine in the world. These systems were officially approved and recognized even by the omnipotent class of priests who possessed such enormous powers over the population.
Traditions of ancient Egyptian medicine 1000 BC. and even a much earlier period were known to use garlic, opium, castor oil, coriander, mint, indigo, and other herbs for medicine, and the Old Testament also mentions the use and cultivation of the herb, including mandragora, hiv, cumin, wheat, barley, and rye. However, this is more simplistic, since the Egyptians had almost universally revered reputations practicing very complex forms of medicine. The excellent embalming of mummies is a vivid example of Egyptian practice, which could be traced back in time to almost prehistoric times according to the calculations of the Egyptian calendars. Entries about the existence of these high-tech healing systems are just beginning to appear with the discoveries of new methods of understanding the language semantics of ancient Egypt.
Like all other inventions or technological advances in antiquity (prehistoric Sumerians and their predecessors in the early Egyptian kingdoms), these therapeutic systems were then transmitted and accepted by the outside world through centuries and millennia of interactions and contacts.
Chinese herbal medicine, like its counterpart in Egypt, also has great antiquity, and therapeutic roots extend to the Zhou dynasty, late Bronze Age / Early Iron Age, about 2500-3000 years ago. From its shamanic origin, grassiness in archaic China evolved in response to the concept of causality or origin that existed at that time. These ideas about the causes of disease in human society are directly related to the problem socio-economic environment that prevailed at the beginning of China in the second half of the first millennium BC.
Shennong Bencao Jing, the first Chinese herbal book collected in the era of the Han Dynasty, contains 365 medicinal plants and their use. Ma-Juan shrub, which introduced medicinal ephedrine to modern medicine, refers to the plants listed in the collection. Included are references to 247 substances that were used by these early people for many different diseases, including back pain relief. Excellent generations from the Han dynasty to the Tang dynasty were complemented by Shennong Bencao Jing.
By 1596, Ben Cao Gan Mu from the medical ling Ming Li Shizhen (1518-1593) gave an example of the apogee of Chinese herbalism. Published three years after his death, this Grand Materia Medica contained at least 1,892 records. In the following centuries of the imperial era, Chinese herbal medicine continued to develop. Despite the temporary setbacks that occurred after the collapse of the Manchu dynasty in 1911, it is still on par with biomedicine in China today.
Another herbal medicine system, Indian Ayurveda (Sanskrit for the “science of the mind body”), used herbs such as turmeric, perhaps as far back as 1900 BC. Many other herbs and minerals used in Ayurvedic medicine were later described by ancient Indian herbalists, such as Charaka and Sushruta in the 1st millennium BC. The Sushruta Samhita, attributed to Sushrute in the 6th century BC, describes 700 medicinal plants, 64 preparations from mineral sources and 57 preparations based on animal sources. And here we could find clear evidence of the indisputable influence of antiquity and prehistoric Egypt, which were anticipated by all the ancient world civilizations, perhaps tens of thousands of years.
Today, many modern and Western doctors are beginning to study herbal remedies for some common and not so common disorders like arthritis and psoriasis. Lower cost and often safer use have attracted many medical professionals. Some doctors use herbs to reverse the side effects of pharmaceuticals, which are already rapidly gaining momentum in most parts of the Western world.
We have witnessed a rapid growth in the use of plants for medical purposes, since traditional alternative medicine medicines have become more acceptable in Western medical practices. The health and health / fitness industries have gained immense popularity with almost geometric growth over the past 20 years. We are seeing an increase in popularity even among household brand names for personal care and beauty products containing medicinal herbal extracts, as today's informed consumers discover hidden therapeutic secrets and rejuvenating abilities of the maternity flora.
