herbal

Dioscorides', De Materia Medica, Byzantium, 15th century.

A[n] herbal is a book containing the names and descriptions of herbs, or of plants in general, with their properties and virtues^[1] (uses). The essence of the traditional herbal was the combination of plant lore, the medicinal properties of the herbs, and their arrangement into groups^[2] although they sometimes included mineral and animal medicaments, non-medicinal plant uses, and the descriptions were often accompanied by illustrations to assist identification.^[3]

In the context of Western Europe the word herbal is generally applied to printed books of the period c. 1470–1670.^[4] However, historical accounts usually include reference to scrolls, written manuscripts and incunabula (books printed before 1501) of the ancient classical era from which most of their content was drawn, including the heritage of long herbal traditions in India, China, and elsewhere.^[5]

The word herbal is derived from the mediaeval Latin adjective herbalis (herb) with the word liber (book) being assumed:^[6] it is sometimes contrasted with the word florilegium which refers to a treatise on flowers,^[7] assessing plants for their beauty and enjoyment rather than their utility.^[8] In all cultures, those people familiar with the toxic, hallucinatory, aromatic, culinary and healing powers of plants assumed an exalted position in society whether they be medicine men, magicians, shamen, herbalists, apothecaries or physicians.^[9] This accounts in large part for the great popularity of the herbal in early human history.^[10]

Early herbals are the first written records that give us a glimpse into the origins of human curiosity about plants. Their legacy relates to medicine as ancient herbals has been transformed into the publications of modern chemistry, toxicology and pharmacology – although old herbal remedies, homeopathy, aromatherapy and the use of herbal extracts, tinctures and potions is still a part of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) within the western world.^[11] Botanically, in a general sense, the herbal was at the foundations of botanical all science including the origins of the botanic garden and herbarium and, more specifically, the modern books we call floras, with their elaborate botanical description, classification and illustration of the plants found in a particular region.^[12]

History

All cultures have a long oral history of traditional medicine and herbalism, and the way indigenous peoples use the plants of their region now forms a special branch of botany called ethnobotany. However, it is only when this knowledge is committed to a permanent written record that we have a herbal.^[13]

The history of herbals can be divided into various phases based on their construction, design and illustration.^[14] Before printing was developed in Germany c. 1440 registers of medicinal herbs existed as manuscripts, often illustrated, that took the form of scrolls or loose sheets. When handwritten sheets were bound together with a cover in the form of a modern book they were called a codex. Any printed books or sheets produced before 1501 are known as incunabula. Early handwritten herbals were often illustrated with paintings and drawings and these were freely copied and distributed as compilations: many originals have been lost known only by reference from other texts, publications often had many editions and numerous translations between the languages Latin, medieval German, French and English. For bibliographies tracing this literature see Arber^[15] and Rohde.^[16]. As the printed book gained popularity the use of woodcut (xylograph) illustration increased, the first printed herbal with printed woodcut illustrations, the Puch der Natur of Konrad of Megenberg, appeared in 1475.^[17] Woodcuts too were sold from one printer to another.^[18] For many years woodcuts and metal-engraved images were used together and the highly ornamented coverpieces were often metal printed. However, the first fully metal-engraved herbals did not appear until about 1580.^[19]

China, India, Mexico

Shennong pen Ts’ao ching of China

China is renowned for its traditional herbal medicine that date back thousands of years.^[20][21] Legend has it that Emperor Shennong, the founder of Chinese herbal medicine, composed the Shennong pen Ts’ao ching or Great Herbal in about 2700 BC as the forerunner of all later Chinese herbals.^[22] It survives as a copy made c. 500 AD and describes about 365 herbs.^[23] High quality herbals and monographs on particular plants were produced in the period to 1250 AD including: the Chen Lei Pen Ts’ao written by T’Ang Shenwei in 1108 passing through 12 editions until 1600; a monograph on the lychee by Ts’ai Hsiang in 1059 and one on the oranges of Wen-Chou by Han Yen-Chih in 1178.^[24] In 1406 Chou Wang Hsiao published a herbal Chiu Huang Pen Ts'ao. It contained high quality woodcuts and descriptions of 414 species of plants of which 276 were described for the first time, the book pre-dating the first European printed book by 69 years. It was reprinted many times. ^[25] Other herbals include Pen Ts'ao Fa Hui in 1450 by Hsu Yung and Pen Ts'ao Kangmu of Li Shi Chen in 1590.^[26]

Sushruta Samhita of India

Traditional herbal medicine of India, known as Ayurveda, possibly dates back to the second millennium BC tracing its origins to the holy Hindu Vedas and, in particular, the Atharvaveda.^[27] One authentic compilation of teachings is by the surgeon Sushruta, available in a treatise called Sushruta Samhita. This contains 184 chapters and description of 1120 illnesses, 700 medicinal plants, 64 preparations from mineral sources and 57 preparations based on animal sources.^[28] Other early works of Ayurveda include the Charaka Samhita, attributed to Charaka. This tradition, however is mostly oral. The earliest surviving written material which contains the works of Sushruta is the Bower Manuscript—dated to the 4th century AD.^[29]

Hernandez - Rerum Medicarum and the Aztecs

We have an illustrated herbal published in Mexico in 1552, written in the Aztec Nauhuatl language by a native physician, [Martín Cruz (herbal author)|Martín Cruz]] as the Libellus de Medicinalibus Indorum Herbis ("Book of Medicinal Herbs of the Indies") which probably represents the medicine of the Aztecs although the formal illustrations, resembling European ones, suggest that the artists were following the traditions of their Spanish masters rather than an indigenous style of drawing.^[30] In 1570 Francisco Hernández (c.1514-1580) was sent from Spain to study the natural resources of New Spain (now Mexico). Here he drew on indigenous sources, including the extensive botanical gardens that had been established by the Aztecs, to record c. 1200 plants in his Rerum Medicarum of 1615. Nicolás Monardes’ Dos Libros (1569) contains the first published illustration of tobacco.^[31]

Statue of Theophrastus c. 371 – c. 287 BC, Orto botanico di Palermo

Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece and Rome

By about 2000 BC medical papyri in ancient Egypt included medical prescriptions based on plant matter and made reference to the herbalists combination of medicines and magic for healing.^[32]

Papyrus Ebers

A page from the Ebers Papyrus, the most complete and extensive of surviving ancient herbals.

The ancient Egyptian Papyrus Ebers is one of the earliest known herbals; it dates to 1550 BC and is based on sources, now lost, dating back a further 500 to 2000 years.^[33] The earliest Sumerian herbal dates from about 2500 BC as a copied manuscript of the 7th century BC. Inscribed Assyrian tablets dated 668–626 BC list about 250 vegetable drugs: the tablets include herbal plant names that are still in us today including: saffron, cumin, turmeric and sesame.^[34]

The ancient Greeks gleaned much of their medicinal knowledge from Egypt and Mesopotamia.^[35] Hippocrates (460-377 BC), the "father of medicine" (renowned for the eponymous Hippocratic oath), used about 400 drugs, most being of plant origin. However, the first Greek herbal of any note was written by Diocles of Carystus in the fourth century BC - although nothing remains of this except its mention in the written record. It was Aristotle’s pupil Theophrastus (371–287 BC) in his Historia Plantarum and De Causis Plantarum (better known as the Enquiry into Plants) that established the scientific system of plants. Based largely on Aristotle’s notes, the Ninth Book of his Enquiry deals specifically with medicinal herbs and their uses including the recommendations of herbalists and druggists of the day and his plant descriptions often included their natural habitat and geographic distribution.^[36] With the formation of the Alexandrian School c. 330 BC medicine flourished and written herbals of this period included those of the physicians Herophilus, Mantias, Andreas of Karystos, Appolonius Mys, Nicander and Krateuas.^[37]

Arabic Book of Simple Drugs (c.1334) from Dioscorides’ De Materia Medica. By Kathleen Cohen, in the British Museum.

Dioscorides - De Materia Medica

The De Materia Medica (c. 40-90 AD; Greek, Περί ύλης ιατρικής) of Pedanios Dioscorides was produced in about 65 AD. It was the single greatest classical authority on the subject and the most influential herbal ever written,^[38] serving as a model for herbals for the next 1000 years up to the Renaissance. It drew together much of the accumulated herbal knowledge of the time, including some 500 medicinal plants. The original has been lost but a magnificent illustrated Byzantine copy, known as the Codex Vindobonensis, dates from about 512 AD.^[39]

Pliny - Naturalis Historia

Pliny the Elder's (23– 79 AD) Naturalis Historia (c. 77-79 AD) is a synthesis of the information contained in about 2000 scrolls and it includes myths and folklore: there are about 200 extant copies of this work. It comprises 37 books of which sixteen (Books 12-27) are devoted to trees, plants and medicaments and, of these, seven describe medicinal plants. In medieval herbals, along with De Materia Medica it is Pliny's work that is the most frequently mentioned of the classical texts, even though the work De Simplicibus of Galen (131-201 AD) is more detailed and notable.^[40]

The Dark Ages and Arab World

During the 600 years of the Dark Ages from 600 AD to 1200 AD the tradition of herbal lore fell to the monasteries. Many of the monks were skilled at the production of books and manuscripts and the tending of both medicinal gardens and the sick, but written works of this period simply emulated those of the classical era.^[41]

Meanwhile in the Arab world by 900 AD the great Greek herbals had been translated and copies lodged in centres of learning in the eastern Mediterranean including Byzantium, Damascus, Cairo and Baghdad where they were combined with the botanical and pharmacological lore of the Orient.^[42] In the medieval Islamic world, Muslim botanists and Muslim physicians made a major contribution to the knowledge of herbal medicines. al-Dinawari described more than 637 plant drugs in the 9th century,^[43] Ibn al-'Awwam described 585 microbiological cultures (55 of which concern fruit trees) in the 12th century,^[44] and Ibn al-Baitar described more than 1,400 different plants, foods and drugs, over 300 of which were his own original discoveries, in the 13th century.^[45] Others associated with this period include Mesue Maior (Masawaiyh, 777-857 AD) who, in his Opera Medicinalia, synthesised the knowledge of Greeks, Persians, Arabs, Indians and Babylonians and this work was complemented by the medical encyclopaedia of Avicenna (Ibn Sina, 980-1037 AD).^[46] Avicenna’s Canon of medicine was used for centuries in both East and West.^[47] In the Dark Ages Islamic science protected classical botanical knowledge that had been ignored in the West, and from 8-12th centuries pharmacy thrived in Muslim countries.

Albertus Magnus - De Vegetabilibus

Albertus Magnus c.1193-1280, author of De Vegetabilibus

In the 13th century scientific enquiry was returning and this was manifest through the production of encyclopaedias, those noted for their plant content included a treatise by Albertus Magnus (c.1193–1280) a Suabian educated at the University of Padua and a tutor to St Thomas Aquinas). It was called De vegetabilibus (c.1256 AD) and even though based on original observations and plant descriptions rather than questions than medicine it bore a close resemblance to the earlier Greek, Roman and Arabic herbals.^[48] Another famous account of the period was De Proprietatibus Rerum (c.1230–1240) of English Franciscan monk Bartholomaeus Anglicus.

Western Europe

Illustration from Elizabeth Blackwell's A Curious Herbal

Perhaps the best known herbals were produced in Europe between 1470 and 1670 ^[49] The invention in Germany of printing from movable type in a printing press c. 1440 was a great stimulus to herbalism. The new herbals were more detailed with greater general appeal and often with Gothic script and the addition of woodcut illustrations that more closely resembled the plants being described.

Early printed herbals include the Kreuterbuch of Hieronymus Tragus from Germany in 1539 and, in England, the New Herball of William Turner in 1551 were arranged, like the classical herbals, either alphabetically, according to their medicinal properties, or as "herbs, shrubs, trees"^[50] Arrangement of plants in later herbals such as Cruydboeck of Dodoens and John Gerard’s Herball of 1597 became more related to their physical similarities and this heralds the beginnings of scientific classification. By 1640 a herbal had been printed that included about 3800 plants – nearly all the plants of the day that were known.^[51]

In the Modern Age and Renaissance, European herbals diversified and innovated, and came to rely more on direct observation than being mere adaptations of traditional models. Typical examples from the period are the fully illustrated De historia stirpium commentarii insignes by Leonhart Fuchs (1542, with over 400 plants), the astrologically-oriented Complete Herbal by Nicholas Culpeper (1653), and the Curious Herbal by Elizabeth Blackwell (1737).

Anglo-Saxon herbals

Anglo-Saxon plant knowledge and gardening skills (the garden was called a wyrtzerd, literally, herb-yard) appears to have exceeded that on the continent.^[52] Our knowledge of Anglo-Saxon plant lore comes primarily from manuscripts that include: the Leech Book of Bald, the Lacnunga.^[53] The Leech Book of Bald (Bald was probably a friend of King Alfred of England) was painstakingly produced by the scribe Cild in about 900–950 AD: it was written in the vernacular tongue and not derived from Greek texts.^[54] The oldest illustrated herbal from Saxon times is a translation of the Latin Herbarius Apulei Platonici, one of the most popular medical works of medieval times, the original dating from the fifth century, this Saxon translation was produced about 1000–1050 AD.^[55] Another vernacular herbal was the Buch der natur or "Book of Nature" by Konrad von Megenberg (1309–1374) which contains the first two botanial woodcuts ever made; it is also the first work of its kind in the vernacular.^[56][57]

Anglo-Norman herbals

In the 12th and early 13th centuries under the influence of the Norman conquest the herbals produced in Britain fell less under the influence of France and Germany and more that of Sicily and the Near east. This showed itself through the Byzantine influenced Romanesque framed illustrations. Anglo-Saxon herbals in the vernacular were replaced by herbals in Latin including Macers Herbal, De Viribus Herbarum (largely derived from Pliny), with the English translation completed in about 1373.^[58]

Fifteenth century incunabula

The first printed herbal appeared in 1469, a version of Pliny's Historia Naturalis: this was published nine years before Dioscorides De Materia Medica was set in type.^[59] Important incunabula include the encyclopaedic De Proprietatibus Rerum of Franciscan monk Bartholomew Anglicus (c. 1203–1272) which, as a manuscript, had first appeared between 1248 and1260 in at least six languages and after being first printed in 1470 ran to 25 editions.^[60] Assyrian physician Mesue (926-1016 AD) wrote the popular De Simplicibus, Grabadin and Liber Medicinarum Particularum the first of his printings being in 1471. These were followed, in Italy, by the Herbarium of Apuleius Platonicus and three German works published in Mainz, the Latin Herbarius (1484), the first herbal published in Germany, German Herbarius (1485), the latter evolving into the Ortus Sanitatis (1491). To these can be added Macer’s De Virtutibus Herbarum, based on Plinys work, the printed edition of 1477 being among the first printed herbals with illustrations.^[61]

Fifteenth century manuscripts

Before 1542 the works principally used by apothecaries were the treatises on simples by Avicenna and the mysterious Serapion’s Liber De Simplici Medicina; the De Synonymis and other publications of Simon Januensis, the Liber Servitoris of Bulchasim Ben Aberazerim, which described the preparations made from plants, animals and minerals, provided a model for the chemical treatment of modern pharmacopoeias. There was also the Antidotarium of Nicolaus de Salerno, which contained Galenical compounds arranged in alphabetical order.^[62]

Low Countries - Dodoens, Lobel, Clusius

Sixteenth century Netherlands was flourished. Translations of early Greeco-Roman texts published in German by Bock in 1546 as Kreuter Buch were subsequently translated into Dutch as Pemptades by Rembert Dodoens (1517–1585) who was a Belgian botanist of world renown. This was an elaboration of his first publication Cruydeboeck (1554).^[63]Matthias de Lobel (1538–1616) published his Stirpium Adversaria Nova (1570–1571) and a massive compilation of illustrations^[64] while Clusius’ (1526–1609) magnum opus was Rariorum Plantarum Historia of 1601 which was a compilation of his Spanish and Hungarian floras and included over 600 plants that were new to science.^[65]. The descriptive accounts of regional floras by these three botanico-physicians formed the basis of the later botanical systems of Caesalpino, Bauhin and Linnaeus.

A Hans Weiditz hand-coloured woodcut from Otto Brunfels' Herbarum Vivae Eicones.

Spain and Portugal - de Orta, Monardes, Hernandez

The Spaniards and Portuguese were explorers, the Portuguese to India (Vasco da Gama) and Goa where physician Garcia de Orta (1490–1570) based his work Coloquios dos Simples (1563). The first botanical knowledge of the New World came from Spaniard Nicolas Monardes (1493–) who published Dos Libros between 1569 and 1571.^[66] The work of Hernandez on the herbal medicine of the Aztecs has already been discussed.

Germany - Bock, Brunfels and Fuchs

Otto Brunfels (c.1489–1534), Leonhart Fuchs (1501– 1566) and Hieronymus Bock (1498–1554) were known as the "German fathers of botany"^[67] although this title belies the fact that they trod in the steps of the scientifically feted Hildegard of Bingen and her accomplished work of 1150, Physica (manuscript no longer in existence) but first printed in 1533.^[68] The 1530 Herbarum Vivae Eicones of Brunfels contained the exquisite, botanically accurate original woodcut illustrations of Hans Weiditz along with 47 species new to science. Bock , in setting out to describe the plants of his native Germany, produced the New Kreuterbuch of 1539 describing the plants he had found in the woods and fields but without illustration; this was supplemented by a second edition in 1546 that contained 365 woodcuts. Bock was possibly the first to adopt a botanical arrangement based on appearance, qualities and other indications of relationship including their ecology and communities. In this he was placing emphasis on botanical rather than medicinal characteristics, unlike the other German herbals. De Historia Stirpium (1542) of Fuchs was a later publication with 509 high quality woodcuts that paid close attention to botanical detail and overall design and it included many plants introduced to Germany in the sixteenth century that were new to science.^[69]

Italy - Mattioli, Calzolari, Alpino

Italian herbals bear the stamp of a country that initiated the Renaissance and a vigorous commerce. In Italy especially herbals changed from copies of old texts to description of plants made by direct observation, sometimes brought back from exploration and trade in new lands, and sometimes of the local flora as in the Viaggio di Monte Baldo (1566) of Francisco Calzolari , which including drawings made from life, thus extending the ancient lists. Other contributors included Pietro Andrea Mattioli (1501–1577), physician to the Italian aristocracy and his Commentarii (1544) which including many new species and more traditional herbal Epistolarum Medicinalium Libri Quinque (1561). Prospero Alpino (1553-1617) in 1592 published the highly popular De Plantis Aegypti and he also established a botanic garden in Padua in 1542 which, together with those at Pisa and Florence, rank among the world’s first.^[70]

England - Turner, Gerard, Parkinson, Culpeper

The first true herbal printed in Britain was Banckes Herball of 1525^[71] which, although popular in its day, was unillustrated and soon eclipsed by the most famous of the early printed herbals, Peter Treveris's Grete Herball of 1526 (derived in turn from the derivative French Grand Herbier).^[72]

An engraving of Parkinson from his monumental work Theatrum Botanicum (1640), reprinted in Agnes Arber's Herbals

William Turner (?1508-7 to July 1568) was an English naturalist, botanist, and theologian who studied at Cambridge University to eventually became known as the “father of English botany” achieving botanical notoriety through his 1538 publication Libellus de re herbaria novus which was the first essay on scientific botany in English. His three-parted A New Herball of 1551-1562-1568, with woodcut illustrations taken from Fuchs, was noted for its original contributions and extensive medicinal content and for being more accessible by being written in vernacular English. His work had a strong influence on later eminent botanists such as John Ray and Jean Bauhin.

John Gerard (1545–1612) is the most famous of all the English herbalists.^[73] His Herball of 1597 is, like most herbals, largely derivative and we shall probably never know its full history. It appears to be a reformulation of Hieronymus Bock's Kreuterbuch subsequently translated into Dutch as Pemptades by Rembert Dodoens (1517–1585), and thence into English by Carolus Clusius, (1526–1609) then re-worked by Henry Lyte in 1578 as A Nievve Herball. This became the basis of Gerard's Herball or General Hiftorie of Plantes.^[74] that appeared in 1597 with its 1800 woodcuts (only 16 original). Although largely derivative, Gerard's popularity can be attributed to his charming and original overlay of evocations of plants and places in Elizabethan England and to the clear influence of gardens and gardening on this work.^[75] He had published, in 1596, Catalogus which was a list of 1033 plants growing in his garden.^[76]

John Parkinson (1567–1650) was an apothecary and author of two famous texts. The first was Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris in 1629: this was essentially a gardening book, a florilegium for which Charles 1 awarded him the title Botanicus Regius Primarius. The second was his Theatrum Botanicum of 1629, the largest herbal ever produced in the English language. It lacked the quality illustrations of Gerard's works, but was a massive and informative compendium including about 3800 plants (twice the number of Gerard's first edition Herball), over 1750 pages and over 2,700 woodcuts.^[77] This was effectively the last and culminating herbal of its kind and, although it included more plants of no discernible economic or medicinal use than ever before, they were nevertheless arranged according to their properties rather than their natural affinities.^[78]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Nicholas Culpeper

Nicholas Culpeper (18 October 1616 – 10 January 1654) was an English botanist, herbalist, physician, apothecary and astrologer from London's East End.^[79] His published books were A Physicall Directory^[80] (1649), which was a pseudoscientific pharmacopoeia. The English Physitian^[81] (1652) and the Complete Herbal^[82] (1653), contain a rich store of pharmaceutical and herbal knowledge. He was one of the most eminent and popular 17th century herbalists in the English speaking world best known for his Complete Herbal and English Physician which nevertheless lacked scientific credibility because it was astrological. This herbal reveals the Graeco-Arabic medicine of the day. Culpeper combines diseases, plants and astrological prognosis into a simple integrated system that has proved extremely popular to the present day being a strong influence on anthroposophy (biodynamic gardening). Included in the ranks of the more bizarre would be the Curious Herbal of Elizabeth Blackwell (1737).

Legacy

Back cover of the Chinese pharmacopoeia First Edition, published in 1930.

In the realm of medicine, with the rise of modern medicine and its emphasis on synthetic and industrialized drugs, herbals have evolved into the pharmacopoeia which, in its modern technical sense, is a book that has been published by the authority of a government, or a medical or pharmaceutical society. The first British Pharmacopoeia was published in the English language in 1864, but gave such general dissatisfaction both to the medical profession and to chemists and druggists that the General Medical Council brought out a new and amended edition in 1867.

With large-scale book production the market has a wide range of books on culinary herbs and herb gardens, medicinal and useful plants - and traditional medicine is still vibrant in many parts of the world. Although herbal medicine has become more popular in recent decades, it too is mainly based on industrially processed plant products, and herbals continue to be a relatively minor segment of the book market. However, the enduring desire for simple medicinal information on specific plants has resulted in a number of modern herbals that echo the herbals of the past, an example being Maud Grieve's A Modern Herbal, first published in 1931 but with many subsequent editions.

Illustration of Delphinium peregrinum in Flora Graeca by John Sibthorp and Ferdinand Bauer (1806–1840).

The magical and mystical side of the herbal also lives on. Alongside the genuine herbals other works of a more superstitious or experimental nature existed - and still do. Many were concerned with the fanciful medical theory of the doctrine of signatures, the use of plants to cure human ailments on the basis of supposed anatomical resemblances between the ailment or part of the body affected and the appearance of the plant. The astrology of Culpeper can be seen in contemporary anthroposophy (biodynamic gardening); it is likely that alternative medical approaches like homeopathy, aromatherapy and other new-age schools find their origins in herbals and traditional medicine.

In the West the herbal stimulated the establishment of herb gardens as repositories for the supply and study of the plants they described. This tradition arose in the medieval monastery and led, in turn, to the physic garden which always had an associated institute of learning, be it a monastery, university or herbarium. It was this medieval garden of the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries attended by apothecaries and physicians that supplied the simples or officinals needed for treatment. This tradition passed in a direct line to the systems gardens of the eighteenth century (gardens that demonstrated the classification system of plants)through to the modern botanical garden.

The advent of printing and wood-engraving permitted the efficient continuity of knowledge and observation. Herbals contributed to botany by setting in train the science of plant description, classification and illustration.^[83] From the time of the ancients like Dioscorides through to Parkinson in 1629, the scope of the herbal remained essentially the same. The tradition of grand herbal compendia effectively ended in the early seventeenth century but the herbal legacy has continued in several ways. Up to the seventeenth century botany and medicine were one and the same but gradually some books omitted medicinal properties to become more botanical, and medical books progressively ignored the plant lore. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries plant description and classification began to relate plants to one-another and not to man; this coupled with the origin of the biological system of binomial nomenclature was a potent mix. "Scientific herbals" called Floras emerged that detailed and illustrated the plants growing in a particular region. These books were often backed by herbaria, collections of dried plants that verified the descriptions they contained. So modern botany and, especially plant taxonomy, was born out of medicine. As herbal historian Agnes Arber remarks - "Sibthorp's monumental Flora Graeca is, indeed, the direct descendant in modern science of the De Materia Medica of Dioscorides."^[84]

See also

Look up Herbal in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• List of culinary herbs and spices
• List of plants used as medicine

References

Bibliography

• Arber, Agnes 1986. Herbals, Their Origin and Evolution, a Chapter in the History of Botany 1470 – 1670. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521338794. (first published in 1912).
• Anderson, Frank J. An Illustrated History of the Herbals. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0231040024.
• Andrews, Theodora 1982. A Bibliography on Herbs, Herbal Medicine, “Natural” Foods, and Unconventional Medical Treatment. Littleton, Colorado: Libraries Unlimited, Inc. ISBN 0872872882.
• Blunt, Wilfrid & Raphael, Sandra 1980. The Illustrated Herbal. London: Francis Lincoln. ISBN 0906459028.
• Boulanger, Diane 2002. The Islamic Contribution to Science, Mathematics and Technology, OISE Papers, in STSE Education, Vol. 3.</re
• Dwivedi, Girish & Dwivedi, Shridhar 2007. History of Medicine: Sushruta – the Clinician – Teacher par Excellence. National Informatics Centre (Government of India).
• Greene, Edward L. 1981. Landmarks of Botanical History: Part 1. ed. Egerton, Frank N. from 1909 edition. Stanford: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804710759.
• Hong-Yen Hsu 1980. Oriental Materia Medica: A Precise Guide. Long Beach, CA: Oriental Healing Arts Institute. ISBN 0941942228.
• Culpeper, Nicholas 1995. Culpeper's Complete Herbal: A Book of Natural Remedies of Ancient Ills. (The Wordsworth Collection Reference Library) Contemporary Publishing Company. ISBN 1853263451.
• Grieve, Maud 1984. A Modern Herbal. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Books. ISBN 0486227987 (first published in 1931).
• Jackson, Benjamin D. 1900. A Glossary of Botanical Terms. London: Duckworth & Co.
• Kutumbian, P. 2005. Ancient Indian Medicine. Orient Longman. ISBN 8125015213.
• Keys, John D. 1976. Chinese Herbs, Their Botany, Chemistry, and Pharmacodynamics. Rutland, Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle Company. ISBN 0804811792.
• Morelon, Régis & Rashed, Roshdi 1996. Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science. Vol. 3. Routledge. ISBN 0415124107.
• Morton, Alan G. 1981. History of Botanical Science: An Account of the Development of Botany from Ancient Times to the Present Day. London: Academic Press. ISBN 0125083823.
• Reed, Howard S. 1942. A Short History of the Plant Sciences. New York: Ronald Press.
• Rohde, Eleanour Sinclair 1974. The Old English Herbals. London: Minerva Press. ISBN 0856360031.
• Stuart, Malcolm (ed.) 1979. Herbs and Herbalism. London: Orbis publishing Limited. ISBN 0856130672.
• Tang, W. & Eisenbrand, G. 1992. Chinese Drugs of Plant Origin. New York: Springer-Verlag. ISBN 0354019309.
• Toresella, Sergio 1996. Gli erbari degli alchimisti. In Arte farmaceutica e piante medicinali — erbari, vasi, sturmenti e testi dalla raccolte liguri, Liana Soginata (ed). Pisa: Pacini Editore.
• Unschuld, Paul U. 1985. Medicine in China: A History of Ideas. California: University of California Press. ISBN 0520050231.
• Woodland, Dennis W. 1991. Contemporary Plant Systematics. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. ISBN0205121829.
• Wujastyk, Dominik 2003. The Roots of Ayurveda: Selections from Sanskrit Medical Writings. London: Penguin Classics. ISBN 0140448241.

External links

The Anglo-Saxon Plant Name Survey

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