Aromas
had been used for medicinal, spiritual, and magical purposes going back
as far back as Egyptian times 3000 B.C. Even further back in time 5000
B.C. the Tassili cave paintings showed women wearing fragrant flower
garlands. There are frequent mentions of the use of potions throughout
history - Pliny the 1st century Roman historian, mentions in his Natural
History narrative, 32 remedies prepared from roses, 21 from lilies, 17
from violets, and 25 from pennyroyal. Ancient Indian cultures used
sandalwood for genito-urinary infections.
Nostradamus, at the age
of 21 received a licence, having studied in Montpellier France, to
practise medicine. One of the formulae which he used as a remedy for
several conditions, has survived to this day, and was compounded of rose
petals, cloves, lignum aloes, and the dried roots of iris and sweet
flag.
The ancient Greeks also contributed to the origins of herbal
medicine. Dioscorides, a military doctor was the author of De Materia
Medica a book on herbal medicine, which was the foundation of all
subsequent books for a further 1600 years. Galen another Greek doctor
also wrote a major book on herbal medicine De Simplicibus in the 2nd
century which was used up to the middle ages by the Islamic physicians.
The
word of herbalism was carried to Europe via the crusaders, and the
texts were translated into Latin, which when printing was developed, the
information became more widespread, though only if you could read. So
herbal folklore passed on from generation to generation, by word of
mouth. In the 16th century John Gerard published in 1597 the "Herbal or
General Historie of Plantes". He had been greatly influenced by the
great medical scholar Paracelsus.
Now in recent time the medical
fraternity is becoming aware of the benefits of some of these ancient
methods, and in the United Kingdom some areas are becoming available on
the National Health System.
No comments:
Post a Comment