ARID ZONE MEDICINAL PLANTS:HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS

A PRESENTATION ON 18 TH AUGUST

2016AT PFI

BYMR. ALLAH DAD KHAN

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS Healing with medicinal plants is as old as

mankind itself. The connection between man and his search

for drugs in nature dates from the far past, of which there is ample evidence from various sources: written documents, preserved monuments, and even original plant medicines.

Awareness of medicinal plants usage is a result of the many years of struggles against illnesses due to which man learned to pursue drugs in barks, seeds, fruit bodies, and other parts of the plants.

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS (60000 YRS BACK) Archaeology evidences

shows that Paleothic used Medicinal plants 60000 years back.

The oldest written evidence of medicinal plants’ usage for preparation of drugs has been found on a Sumerian clay slab from Nagpur, approximately 5000 years old.

It comprised 12 recipes for drug preparation referring to over 250 various plants, some of them alkaloid such as poppy, henbane, and mandrake.[

SHEN NUNG’S PEN TS’AO OR SHENNONG BEN CAO JING ( 3000 B.C.), The oldest known list of medicinal herbs is a Chinese herbal that is probably a compilation of an even older oral tradition.

CHINESE EMPEROR FU HSI REFERENCES MARIJUANA AS A POPULAR MEDICINE (2900 BC)The Chinese Emperor Fu Hsi (ca. 2900 BC), whom the Chinese credit with bringing civilization to China, seems to have made reference to Ma, the Chinese word for Cannabis, noting that Cannabis was very popular medicine that possessed both yin and yang." 

Emperor Fu HsiSource: jaars.org (accessed May 25, Emperor Fu HsiSource: jaars.org (accessed May 25, 201Emperor Fu Hsi

 CHINESE EMPEROR SHEN NUNG SAID TO DISCOVER HEALING PROPERTIES OF MARIJUANA (2700 BC )"According to Chinese legend, the emperor Shen Nung (circa 2700 BC; also known as Chen Nung) [considered the Father of Chinese medicine] discovered marijuana's healing properties as well as those of two other mainstays of Chinese herbal medicine, ginseng and ephedra

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS (2500 BC )

The Chinese book on roots and grasses “Pen T’Sao,” written by Emperor Shen Nung circa 2500 BC, treats 365 drugs (dried parts of medicinal plants), many of which are used even nowadays such as the following: Rhei rhisoma, camphor, Theae folium, Podophyllum, the great yellow gentian, ginseng, jimson weed, cinnamon bark, and ephedra

AYURVEDA 2000 BCE The medicine system

of Ayurveda, originated from the Hindu vedas, which were written around 2000 BCE (Wikipedia, Herbal), specifically the Rig Veda, the major medicinal work, wrote of the herb, “snakeroot which was a treatment for insanity” 

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS (1550 BC )The Ebers Papyrus, written circa 1550 BC, represents a collection of 800 proscriptions referring to 700 plant species and drugs used for therapy such as pomegranate, castor oil plant, aloe, senna, garlic, onion, fig, willow, coriander, juniper, common centaury, and cannabis for inflammation etc

EARLIEST WRITTEN REFERENCE TO MEDICAL MARIJUANA IN CHINESE PHARMACOPEIA (1500 BC )"The use of cannabis for purposes of healing predates recorded history. The earliest written reference is found in the 15th century BC Chinese Pharmacopeia, the Rh-Ya

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS ( 800 BC )

In Homer's epics The Iliad and The Odysseys, created circa 800 BC, 63 plant species from the Minoan, Mycenaean, and Egyptian Assyrian pharmacotherapy were referred to. Some of them were given the names after mythological characters from these epics; for instance, Elecampane (Inula helenium L. Asteraceae) was named in honor of Elena, who was the centre of the Trojan War

 MEDICAL USE OF MARIJUANA IN THE MIDDLE EAST RECORDED IN THE VENIDAD (700 BC )

"The Venidad, one of the volumes of the Zend-Avesta, the ancient Persian religious text written around the seventh century BC purportedly by Zoroaster (or Zarathustra), the founder of Zoroastrianism, and heavily influenced by the Vedas, mentions bhang and lists cannabis as the most important of 10,000 medicinal plants."

Persian Prophet and Philosopher Zoroaster

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS (500 BC )

Herodotus (500 BC) referred to castor oil plant, Orpheus to the fragrant hellebore and garlic, and Pythagoras to the sea onion (Scilla maritima), mustard, and cabbage. The works of Hippocrates (459–370 BC) contain 300 medicinal plants classified by physiological action: Wormwood and common centaury (Centaurium umbellatum Gilib) were applied against fever; garlic against intestine parasites; opium, henbane, deadly nightshade, and mandrake were used as narcotics; fragrant hellebore and haselwort as emetics; sea onion, celery, parsley, asparagus, and garlic as diuretics; oak and pomegranate as adstringents

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS ( 459-370 BC )

The works of Hippocrates (459–370 BC) contain 300 medicinal plants classified by physiological action: Wormwood and common centaury (Centaurium umbellatum Gilib) were applied against fever; garlic against intestine parasites; opium, henbane, deadly nightshade, and mandrake were used as narcotics; fragrant hellebore and haselwort as emetics; sea onion, celery, parsley, asparagus, and garlic as diuretics; oak and pomegranate as adstringents

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS (371-287 BC )

Theophrast (371-287 BC) founded botanical science with his books “De Causis Plantarium”— Plant Etiology and “De Historia Plantarium”—Plant History. In the books, he generated a classification of more than 500 medicinal plants known at the time.

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS (25 BC -50AD)

In his work “De re medica” the renowned medical writer Celsus (25 BC–50 AD) quoted approximately 250 medicinal plants such as aloe, henbane, flax, poppy, pepper, cinnamon, the star gentian, cardamom, false hellebore, etc

 ANCIENT CHINESE TEXT RECOMMENDS MARIJUANA FOR MORE THAN 100 AILMENTS (1 AD )In a compendium of drug recipes compiled in 1 AD [Pen Ts'ao Ching], based on traditions from the time of Shen Nung, marijuana is depicted as an ideogram [pictorial symbol] of plants drying in a shed. This ancient text... recommends marijuana for more than 100 ailments, including gout, rheumatism, malaria, and absentmindedness.

Chinese ideogram for marijuana ("ma")

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS (65 AD ) In 65 A.D., Dioscorides, a

Greek, wrote his Materia Medica (13.152.6). This was a practical text dealing with the medicinal use of more than 600 plants.

In the second century, Galen synthesized much of what has been attributed to Hippocrates. To further his understanding of bodily functions, he performed animal and even human dissections and was able to demonstrate that the arteries carried blood rather than air.

Galenic theories had great longevity, prevailing in western Europe until the sixteenth century.

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS (23AD – 79 AD)

Pliny the Elder (23 AD-79), a contemporary of Dioscorides, who travelled throughout Germany and Spain, wrote about approximately 1000 medicinal plants in his book “Historia naturalis.” Pliny's and Dioscorides’ works incorporated all knowledge of medicinal plants at the time.

 PEDANIUS DIOSCORIDES 50-70 AD

writes De Materia Medica– a precursor of modern pharmacopoeias that was in use for almost 1600 years

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS (77 AD ) In ancient history, the

most prominent writer on plant drugs was Dioscorides, “the father of pharmacognosy,” who, as a military physician and pharmacognosist of Nero's Army, studied medicinal plants wherever he travelled with the Roman Army. Circa 77 AD he wrote the work “De Materia Medica.”

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS (131-200 AD)

The most distinguished Roman physician (concurrently a pharmacist), Galen (131 AD–200), compiled the first list of drugs with similar or identical action (parallel drugs), which are interchangeable—“De succedanus.

HUA TUO LIVED MUCH LATER (140-208 A.D.

He is credited with being the first person to use Cannabis as an anesthetic. The Chinese term for anesthesia is also composed of the Chinese character that means hemp, followed by the means of intoxication. He dried and powdered the plant, mixing it with wine for internal and external administrations. Hua Tuo performed surgeries to remove diseased tissues with local and systemic administration of his Cannabis wine anesthetic and acupuncture to control the pain. Hua Tuo was likely using the stronger Indian hemp or strains higher in CBD. 

Regarded as one of the great physicians of the Han dynasty (206 BC-220 AD), the most glorious period in Chinese medical history, Chang Chung-ching 神農 wroteShang han lun (Treatise on Colds and Fevers). This work had a profound influence on Chinese medicine and is considered to be the most important medical classic after the Huang-ti Nei ching. Chang Chung-ching is called the Hippocrates of China.

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS (222 -350 AD)

Tea is first mentioned in Chinese writing in 222 AD as a substitute for wine, and in a circa 350 AD Chinese dictionary. By the third century AD tea was being advocated for its properties as a healthy, refreshing drink and the benefits of tea drinking, but it was not until the Nobility of the Tang Dynasty (618 AD - 906 AD) made tea fashionable, that tea became China's national drink

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS ( 742-814 AD )

Charles the Great (742 AD–814), the founder of the reputed medical school in Salerno, in his “Capitularies” ordered which medicinal plants were to be grown on the state-owned lands. Around 100 different plants were quoted, which have been used till present days such as sage, sea onion, iris, mint, common centaury, poppy, marsh mallow, etc.

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS ( 850 AD )

“Canon Medicinae” by Avicen Abu ‘Ali al-Husayn ibn Sina is

better known in Europe by the Latinized name “Avicenna.” He is probably the most significant philosopher in the Islamic tradition and arguably the most influential philosopher of the pre-modern era. Born in Afshana near Bukhara in Central Asia in about 980, he is best known as a polymath, as a physician whose major work the Canon (al-Qanun fi’l-Tibb) continued to be taught as a medical textbook in Europe and in the Islamic worldna

ABŪ DĀWŪD, SULAYMĀN IBN ḤASSĀN IBN JULJUL (ARABIC:  جلجل ابن حسان بن  C. 944) (سليمانCÓRDOBA, SPAIN, – C. 994)  Andalusian Muslim phys

ician and pharmacologist who wrote an important book on the history of medicine. His works on pharmacology were frequently quoted by physicians in Muslim Spain during the 10th and 11th centuries. Some of his works were later studied by Albertus Magnus, like De secretis, but were attributed to a Latinized version of his name, Gilgil

ALI IBN AL-HUSAIN IBN AL-WAFID ( الحسين بن عليالوافد ,(CA.1074-997) (بن

known in Latin Europe as Abenguefit, was a pharmacologist and physician from Toledo. He was the vizier of Al-Mamun of Toledo. His main work is Kitāb al-adwiya al-mufrada ( كتاب

المفردة translated ,األدويةinto Latin as De medicamentis simplicibus).[

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS (1197-1248 AD) “Liber Magnae

Collectionis Simplicum Alimentorum Et Medicamentorum”

Abu Muhammad Abdallah Ibn Ahmad Ibn al-Baitar Dhiya al-Din al-Malaqi (known as Ibn al-Baitar, circa 1197–1248 AD) was an Andalusian Arab scientist, botanist, pharmacist, and physician. He was born in Malaga, Spain, and died in Damascus, Syria.

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS (1254-1324 AD )

Marco Polo's journeys (1254-1324) in tropical Asia, China, and Persia.

Marco Polo was born in around 1254 into a wealthy and cosmopolitan Venetian merchant family. Polo's father and uncle, Niccolò and Maffeo Polo, were jewel merchants

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS ( 1492-1498 AD)

Discovery of America (1492), and Vasco De Gama's journeys to India (1498), resulted in many medicinal plants being brought into Europe. Botanical gardens emerged all over Europe, and attempts were made for cultivation of domestic medicinal plants and of the ones imported from the old and the new world

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS (1493-1541 AD)

Paracelsus (1493-1541) was one of the proponents of chemically prepared drugs out of raw plants and mineral substances; nonetheless, he was a firm believer that the collection of those substances ought to be astrologically determined.

He emphasized the importance of experience with patients and railed against blind faith in the ancient physicians.

Chinese medicine seems to have reached its peak during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) when Li Shih-chen 李時珍 wrote his Pen ts'ao kang mu (The Great Herbal). This great pharmacopoeia, which summarizes what was known of herbal medicine up to the late 16th century, describes in detail more than 1800 plants, animal substances, minerals, and metals, along with their medicinal properties and applications. Li Shih-chen was 35 years old when he began to compile his Pen ts'ao kang mu. He took 27 years to finish it

 FRANCIS BACON(1561-1626) While Paracelsus and

Culpeper promoted the doctrine of signatures and astrological herbalism, medical practice was changing. Men like Francis Bacon(1561-1626) and William Harvey (1578-1657) were transforming science from a speculative to an experimental process.

Harvey’s circulation of the blood more useful than Culpeper’s movements of the planets started what might be called scientific medicine.

NICHOLAS CULPEPER (1616-1654)  A century later,

Englishman Nicholas Culpeper (1616-1654) revitalized another ancient facet of herbalism: astrology. Astrological herbalists connected herbs to different signs of the zodiac. They treated specific ailments by determining what sign and planet ruled over the part of the body that needed care and then prescribing an herb of the same astrological sign. According to Culpeper, “he that would know the reason of the operation of the Herbs, must look up as high as the stars.”

PREACHER CHARLES WESLEY (1707-1788 AD)

Preacher Charles Wesley. He advocated for sensible eating, good hygiene and herbal treatments for healthy living.

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS ( 1753 AD ) In 18th century, in his

work Species Plantarium (1753), Linnaeus (1707-1788) provided a brief description and classification of the species described until then. "The Species of Plants") is a book byCarl Linnaeus originally published in 1753,.

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS ( 1806-1878 AD )Early 19th century was a turning point in the

knowledge and use of medicinal plants. The discovery, substantiation, and isolation of alkaloids from

1. Poppy (1806),2. Ipecacuanha (1817).3. Strychnos (1817).4. Quinine (1820).5. Pomegranate (1878).

AJMAL KHAN (OR HAKIMAJMAL KHAN) (1868–1927) was an Indian

physician specialising in the field of South Asian traditionalUnani medicine as well as a Muslim Nationalist, politician and freedom fighter. Through his founding of the Tibbia College in Delhi, he is credited with the revival of Unani medicine in early 20th century India

HAKIM MUHAMMAD SAEED 1920-1998 AD

 (Urdu:  سعید محمد 9; حکیم January 1920 – 17 October 1998, NI, PhD) was a medical researcher, scholar, philanthropist, and a Governor of Sindh Province, Pakistan from 1993 until 1996. Saeed was one of Pakistan's most prominent medical researchers in the field of Eastern medicines. He established the Hamdard Foundation in 1948, prior to his settlement in Pakistan.