Medical Botany

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Medical Botany

• Introduction History of Plant Use in Medicine

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History

• Prehistoric times
• Recorded history
• Sumerian clay tablets
• Ancient Egypt
• Edwin Smith Papyrus
• Ebers Papyrus
• Hearst Papyrus
• Kahun Gynecological Papyrus

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Portion of Ebers Papyrus
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More History

• Ancient China (Pun-tsao)
• Ancient India (Rig-Veda basis for Ayurvedic
  medicine)
• Foundations of Western Medicine -- Ancient Greece
  and Rome
• Hippocrates
• Theophastus
• Dioscorides
• Galen

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Illustrations from De Materia Medica
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Ancient Greek Coins with Silphium (or Silphion -
Ferula)
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History continues

• Fall of Rome 476 A.D.
• Middle Ages
• First Apothecary Shops
• Avicenna (Ibn Sina (980-1037 A.D.)
• Age of Herbals
• Doctrine of Signatures

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Path to modern medicine

• Medicine and botany
• 18th Century
• William Withering
• 19th Century
• 20th Century
• Early 21st Century

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Growth of Alternative Medicine

• Complementary and Alternative Medicine - CAM
• aromatherapy, acupuncture, biofeedback,
  chiropractic manipulation, herbal medicine,
  hypnosis, massage therapy, and many others
• Dietary Supplement Health Education Act (DSHEA)
  of 1994 expanded the category of dietary
  supplements to include other products such as
  herbs, other botanicals, amino acids, and
  metabolites

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Traditional (herbal) medicine today

• People's Republic of China
• India
• Other areas
• Tropical rain forests
• WHO interest