The History of Herbs (Medicinal Remedies)

Since earl times plants have provided the medicinal remedies of the human race. The whole structure of modern pharmacopeia is based on man's historical knowledge of flowers, herbs, plants and trees.  Nature has provided a complete storehouse of herbal remedies to cure all ills of mankind, and today's medicines are only the chemical-pharmaceutical translations of the healing properties of herbs.  Looking back through history, we find there is not a single plant that has not been used at one time or another by men as a foodstuff, a healing, life giving medicine, or a deadly poison.  Since the dawn of civilization man has fed on berries, fruits, grasses, herbs, leaves and roots.  His selection of vegetable food in these prehistoric times was entirely by trial and error.  He continued to eat the plants that agreed with him while remaining away from those that made him ill.  After man mastered the use of fire, the roasted flesh of animals came into the foreground of the human diet and he began the domestication of animals for his daily needs.  

The shepherds of the tribal community flocks, remaining close to nature and having plenty of time during their lonely tasks, observed the behavior of various plants and the effects on their animal charges.  In this way they became the sages and medicine men of their tribes.  These herb-wise shepherds and medicine men of  prehistoric times developed into the herbalists of ancient Persia and the philosophers of antiquity.  In addition to their necessary food-plants, all the old agricultural nations cultivated herbs for their medicinal needs.  In the early days of the Christian Church, the cultivation of herbs was forbidden.  Knowledge of herbs was considered pagan because of the many mystic and magical rites connected with their use.  In the Dark Ages many of the herbal manuscripts of early days were destroyed by the martial rulers and their mercenaries who were devoid of any interest in science and culture.  The knowledge of herbs and their properties was kept alive only by the monks in the seclusion and comparative security of their monasteries.  They studied, translated and copied painstakingly by hand again and again, the few remaining herbals for posterity.  In the later Middle Ages the cultivation of herbs was again taken up by monks and nuns, who were not only healers of the soul, but also physicians and nurses to their flocks.  

The herb garden, called Physick Garden , became part and parcel of every cloister and monastery and, later on, of every castle, court, hospital and medical college.  Alembic laboratories, or distilling plants, the nuclei of our modern pharmaceutical industry, were set up in monasteries and hospitals to convert the herb crop into medical potions and liquors.  The rise of the chemical-pharmaceutical industry made the bulk of these herbal concoctions obsolete, but we still use many as spices and condiments for our food, in medicinal teas and infusions, and monastery herb liquors such as Benedictine, Peres Chartreuse, Trappistine and others continue to serve as stomachic tonics.  Throughout human history, flowers, plants, trees and herbs became so interwoven with man's daily life that they developed into symbols for his expressions and sentiments, passions and affections, fears and superstitions.  In ancient mythology, folklore and legend, the fertile mind assigned to plants their medicinal and nutritive properties.  The religious, legendary and symbolic meaning attached to plants has been handed down to us through the ages and today we still use many special plants in accordance with their age-old symbolism, as at Easter, Christmas, St. Patrick's and numerous other holidays and special occasions.  

Thanks Ernst Lehner.