Origins of Herbalism
The origins of herbalism go as far back as the origins of man. Since the times when man started exploring and experimenting with nature and its resources, man has been aware of the beneficial and harmful effects of a variety of plants. The natural tendency of certain, normally carnivorous animals, to eat the leaves of certain plants when they were ill added to man’s curiosity to learn more and more about the healing qualities of plants and their parts.
The Sumerians, the Chinese and the Indians and even people from other regions of the world generally discovered that certain herbs had healing properties and some others could be poisonous or harmful for animals and human beings, through a process of trial and error and sometimes by sheer accident. For a long time, the body of knowledge gained through the discoveries about medicinal uses of plants passed from one generation to the next generation by word of mouth. It was only about 5000 years ago that the Sumerians recorded their knowledge about medicinal herbs on clay tablets, but even much before that the Chinese and the Indians had succeeded in advancing their knowledge on herbalism.
The Chinese produced a book, under instructions from their emperor Chi’en Nung, containing names of almost 300 medicinal herbs. Among them was listed ma huang, (Ephedra sinica), from which modern day scientists have isolated ephedrine, which is a major ingredient in some diet pills that are widely available in the market today. In the Indian herbal tradition, a fairly knowledge base of diseases, their symptoms and the herbal treatment to be prescribed for treating those diseases, called Ayurveda, was developed quite early. By about the 2nd century B.C., there were experts who knew about more than 700 or 800 indigenous Indian medicinal herbs and these were even then used in the treatment of patients. Ayurveda is still widely practiced in India as an alternative system of medicine.
Later, the Babylonians (who lived in almost the same region as that of modern day Iraq), as also the ancient Chinese and the Indians, influenced the Greeks and the Romans in the field of herbalism. The Europeans learned and improved upon the knowledge they gained about herbs from traveling monks from the Arab region, with the help of the translations monks made from Arabic works. In the Americas, the European settlers found that the Native Americans had extensive knowledge about the medicinal properties of the local herbs, but they had a tradition of treating ailing people by propitiating unseen spirits during the process of using the herbs. A priest, called shaman, was believed to possess the special powers of magic to negotiate with the spirit world in order to heal the suffering. With their healing tradition of shamanism, Native Americans had deep reverence for nature in general and for the herbal kingdom in particular. Many of the herbs that once Native Americans discovered and used for their medicinal properties are now a subject of attention in modern scientific studies.
Herbalism developed indigenously in the other regions of the world also. Australia, Africa, the South Pacific had their herbal traditions among the native people. European soldiers and travelers learned from these traditions and developed their herbal knowledge, although separating it from its association with the traditional magic and superstition.
The development of science and technology has helped modern people in rediscovering through scientific studies and experimentation the value of the many medicinal herbs that the ancient people knew just by experience. Herbalism remains as a viable way to treat many ailments.