Early Arabic and European records

Humans have always used plants in a multitude of ways in a tradition spanning human evolution. The selection of medicinal plants is a conscious process which has led to an enormous number of medicinal plants being used by the numerous cultures of the world.

An early European example is medicinal mushrooms, which were found with the Austrian/Italian ‘iceman’ of the Alps of Ötztal (3300 BCE). Two walnut-sized objects were identified as the birch polypore (Piptoporus betulinus), a bracket fungus common in alpine and other cooler environments. This species contains toxic natural products, and one of its active constituents (agaric acid) is a very strong and effective purgative, which leads to strong and short-lasting diarrhoea. It also has antibiotic effects against mycobacteria and toxic effects on diverse organisms (Capasso 1998). Since the iceman also harboured eggs of the whipworm (Trichuris trichiuria) in his gut, he may well have suffered from gastrointestinal cramps and anaemia. The finding of Piptoporus betulinus points to the possible treatment of gastrointestinal problems using these mushrooms. Also, scarred cuts on the skin of the iceman might indicate the use of medicinal plants, since the burning of herbs over an incision on the skin was a frequent practice in many ancient European cultures (Capasso 1998).

Classical Arabic, Greek and Roman records

The oldest written information in the European–Arabic traditions comes from the Sumerians and Akkadians of Mesopotamia, thus originating from the same area as the archaeological records of Shanidar IV. Similar documents have survived millennia in Egypt. The Egyptians documented their knowledge (including medical and pharmaceutical) on papyrus, which is paper made from Cyperus aquaticus, an aquatic sedge (also called papyrus) found throughout southern Europe and northern Africa. The most important of these writings is the Ebers Papyrus, which originates from around 1500 BC. This document was reputedly found in a tomb, and bought in 1873 by Georg Ebers, who deposited it at the University of Leipzig and 2 years later published a facsimile edition. The Ebers Papyrus is a medical handbook covering all sorts of illnesses and includes empirical as well as symbolic forms of treatment. The diagnostic precision documented in this text is impressive. Other papyri focus on recipes for pharmaceutical preparations (e.g. the so-called Berlin Papyrus).

Greek medicine has been the focus of historical pharmaceutical research for many decades. The Greek scholar Pedanius Dioscorides (Fig. 2.1) from Anarzabos (1 BC) is considered to be the ‘father of [Western] medicine’. His works were a doctrine governing pharmaceutical and medical practice for more than 1500 years, and which heavily influenced European pharmacy. He was an excellent pharmacognosist and described more than 600 medicinal plants. Other Greek and Roman scholars were also influential in developing related fields of health care and the natural sciences. Hippocrates, a Greek medical doctor (ca. 460–375 BC) came from the island of Kos, and heavily influenced European medical traditions. He was the first of a series of (otherwise largely unknown) authors who produced the so-called Corpus Hippocraticum (a collection of works on medical practice). The Graeco-Roman medical doctor Claudius Galen (Galenus) (130–201 AD) summarized the complex body of Graeco-Roman pharmacy and medicine, and his name survives in the pharmaceutical term ‘galenical’. Pliny the Elder (23 or 24–79 AD, killed in Pompeii at the eruption of Vesuvius) was the first to produce a ‘cosmography’ (a detailed account) of natural history, which included cosmology, mineralogy, botany, zoology and medicinal products derived from plants and animals.

Fig. 2.1 Pedanius Dioscorides.

Reproduced with permission from The Wellcome Library, London.

Classical Chinese records

Written documents about medicinal plants are essential elements of many cultures of Asia. In China, India, Japan and Indonesia, writings pointing to a long tradition of plant use survive. In China, the field developed as an element of Taoist thought: followers tried to assure a long life (or immortality) through meditation, special diets, medicinal plants, exercise and specific sexual practices. The most important work in this tradition is the Shen nong ben caojing (the ‘Drug treatise of the divine countryman’) which is now only available as part of later compilations (Waller 1998; see also Chapter 12, p. 177 et seq). This 2200-year-old work includes 365 drugs, most of botanical origin. For each, the following information is provided:

These scholarly ideas were passed on from master to student, and modified and adapted over centuries of use. Unfortunately, in none of the cases do we have a surviving written record. Table 2.1 summarizes some of the Chinese works that include important chapters on drugs.

Table 2.1 Chinese works that include important sections on drugs (after Waller 1998)

In the 16th century the first systematic treatise on (herbal) drugs using a scientific method was produced. The Ben Cao Gang Mu (‘Drugs’, by Li Shizhen, 1518–1593) contains information about 1892 drugs (in 52 chapters) and more than 11,000 recipes are given in an appendix. The drugs are classified into 16 categories (e.g. herbs, cereals, vegetables, fruits). For each drug the following information is provided (Waller 1998):

The recognition of the need to further develop the usage of a plant, to correct earlier mistakes and to include new information is particularly noteworthy. However, the numerous medicopharmaceutical traditions of the Chinese minorities were not included in these works and we, therefore, have no historical records of their pharmacopoeias.

Other Asian traditional medicine

Overall, the written records on other Asian medicine are less comprehensive than for Chinese medicine. The oldest form of traditional Asian medicine is Ayurveda, which is basically Hindu in origin and which is a sort of art-science-philosophy of life. In this respect it resembles Traditional Chinese Medicine, and like TCM has influenced the development of more practical, less esoteric forms of medicine, which are used for routine or minor illnesses in the home. Related types of medicine include Jamu, the traditional system of Indonesia, which will be described briefly below. All these forms of traditional medicine use herbs and minerals and have many features in common. Naturally, many plants are common to all systems and to various official drugs that were formerly (or still) included in the British Pharmacopoeia (BP), European Pharmacopoeia (Eur. Ph.) and US Pharmacopoeia (USP).