The History of Western Herbal Medicine ©

Chanchal Cabrera MNIMH, AHG

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Herbal medicine is the oldest form of healing known. Possibly massage is older because it is an instinctive response to rub ourselves when we hurt, but from archaeological and anthropological evidence it is certain that even our most primitive forbears made use of the abundance of plants around them to treat their many and varied ailments. Their intimate connection to the earth may have enabled these people to communicate in some way with the plants, through techniques such as deep contemplation, ritual and ceremony, and so to gain insight into their therapeutic uses. Native peoples today still claim that the plants talk to them. It is also likely that a certain amount was learned, or at least confirmed, by empirical evidence. The choice of plants in any given case would be influenced by the results of previous choices and this information would have been passed down from generation to generation. As populations grew and migrated to new lands so they experimented with newly discovered plants. If one was not helpful for a fever maybe it was tried against toothache instead, and if one was poisonous then they would know not to try it again.

In these 'primitive' societies the roles of shaman and healer were traditionally different. The shaman tended to be a male and was responsible for the spiritual health of the tribe or community. He intervened between mortals and deities and controlled the future well-being of the group. The healer, on the other hand, was often a woman, and she tended to the immediate, physical well being of the people. This role may have grown out that of the midwife and certainly utilized plants extensively with each indigenous group developing their own system of medicine based on the available plants. 

It is not known exactly when the art of writing first developed but we do know that some of the earliest surviving texts are on plants. The Chinese herbal Pen Ts'ao of Shen Nung was written around 2800 BC and describes 366 medicinal plants. Much of Chinese medicine grew out of Ayurveda (Science of Life) from India and some people claim that some Indian texts on medicine are even older than the Pen Ts'ao. 

By the time of the ancient Greeks, philosophy and medicine had reached a high level of sophistication. Many Gods were worshiped, none more so than those involved with health and healing.    >> continue