Gentle healing methods with plant-based medicines, so-called “phytopharmaceuticals“, were already used 6,000 BC. Whether in China, Persia or Egypt, among the Incas, Greeks or Romans – all great world empires cultivated medicinal plants for medical purposes. The knowledge of their effects was and is passed down orally or in writings and constantly expanded by new findings.
Holistic healing in China
The “Middle Kingdom” looks back on a millennia-old holistic medicine – Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). In addition to the best-known practices such as acupuncture, cupping and Qi Gong, more than 2,800 healing substances are known in Chinese pharmacology. Many of these have similar uses in the Western hemisphere, such as angelica, plantain, cinnamon and rhubarb root.
According to Chinese medical doctrine, these medicinal herbs have a very specific effect on the “functional circuits”, sometimes strengthening, sometimes calming and balancing, depending on taste and temperature. Also in India, with Ayurvedic teachings, people relied on plant substances to regulate out-of-balance elements and juices of body and mind.
In the land of the pharaohs
The ancient Egyptians used all kinds of potions, tinctures, ointments, drops and baths made from animal and plant admixtures as early as 3,000 years ago. Which medicine helps with which illness was recorded in “medical papyri”. Thus, centaury was used for gynecological complaints, frankincense for disinfection, and mandrake as an anesthetic and sleeping potion. An enema with a decoction of myrrh, frankincense, lemongrass, celery, coriander, oil and salt was considered a remedy for hemorrhoids.
Medicine of antiquity and the Middle Ages
Some of these recipes later reached Greece and Rome, and thus Europe. Here it was initially believed that the effect of the plants was a gift of the gods. Aristotle described 550 plant species alone, and the Roman military physician Dioscorides also studied the effects of 600 plants.
With the fall of the Roman Empire, however, the treasure of botanical knowledge fell into oblivion. It was not until the 8th century AD that Benedictines began to collect the lore. In the Middle Ages, monasteries in particular guarded the healing secrets of herbs and plants.
From alchemy to pharmacy
Although the physician Claudius Galenus (200 AD) is already considered the founder of modern pharmacology, it was not until the physician and alchemist Philippus Theophrastus Bombast von Hohenheim (1493 -1541), known as Paracelsus, that simple herbalism became a science. With the help of alchemical practices, he tried to “elicit the soul from the plant”. To do this, he used the art of “separating and combining”. He divided the raw materials into their individual elements, purified them and put them back together again – techniques that are still used today to produce modern medicines.
However, Paracelsus also recognized that “the dose makes the difference, that a thing is not a poison” and that even plant extracts that are not dangerous in themselves can harm health in large quantities. However, the scientific approach to medicinal plants and their constituents as we understand it today did not take hold until the 19th century.
At that time, people began to isolate the active ingredients using chemical methods. An exact dosage in the form of tablets, drops and ointments became possible and thus also the use of important active ingredients of intrinsically poisonous plants such as opium poppy (morphine), belladonna (atropine) or red foxglove (digitoxin).
Long tradition
Of the approximately 21,000 medicinal plants worldwide, about 500 are used for general pharmaceutical purposes. About 40 percent of all medicines are of plant origin or at least rooted in this tradition. Phytopharmaceuticals therefore have a firm place in conventional medicine. However, this does not mean that intensive research is not still being carried out on them today. Most new active ingredients for the treatment of diseases are discovered in nature, whether in the plant kingdom or in the depths of the sea.
