The Arabs introduced numerous new medicinal plants, mostly from India, a country with which they used to have active trade relations. The majority of these plants were had real medicinal value, & many have persisted in the world till today. The Arabs used aloe, deadly nightshade, henbane, coffee, ginger, strychnos, saffron, curcuma, pepper, cinnamon, rheum, senna, & so forth. Certain drugs with strong action were replaced by drugs with mild action, for instance, Sennae folium was used as a mild laxative, compared to the purgatives Heleborus odorus & Euphorbium used until then.
Throughout the Middle Ages European physicians consulted the Arab works “De Re Medica” by John Mesue (850 AD), “Canon Medicinae” by Avicenna (980-1037), & “Liber Magnae Collectionis Simplicum Alimentorum Et Medicamentorum” by Ibn Baitar (1197-1248), in which over 1000 medicinal plants were described.
Spanning from the 8C - 15C, the Islamic golden age saw many advances in science & medicine. These developments continued during the time of the Seljuks & Ottomans.
For Macedonia, St Clement & St Naum of Ohrid's work are of particular significance. They referred to the Nikeian work on medocinal plants dating from year 850, & transferred his extensive knowledge on medicinal plants to his disciples & via them to the masses.
Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi (864-925), also known as Rhazes in Europe, was born in the Persian city of Rey near modern-day Tehran & studied medicine in Baghdad. He worked on both plant medications & chemistry.
Medical schools known as Bimaristan began to appear from the 9thC in the medieval Islamic world among Persians & Arabs, which was generally more advanced than medieval Europe at the time. The Arabs venerated Greco-Roman culture & learning, & translated tens of thousands of texts into Arabic for further study.
As a trading culture, the Arab travellers had access to plant material from distant places such as China & India. Herbals, medical texts & translations of the classics of antiquity filtered in from east & west. Muslim botanists, & Muslim physicians significantly expanded on the earlier knowledge of materia medica.
Al-Nabati introduced empirical techniques in the testing, description & identification of numerous materia medica, & he separated unverified reports from those supported by actual tests & observations. This allowed the study of materia medica to evolve into the science of pharmacology.
Baghdad was an important center for Arab herbalism, as was Al-Andalus between 800 & 1400. Abulcasis (936-1013) of Cordoba authored The Book of Simples, an important source for later European herbals, while Ibn al-Baitar (1197–1248) of Malaga authored the Corpus of Simples, the most complete Arab herbal which introduced 200 new healing herbs, including tamarind, Aconitum, & nux vomica.
Other books include those written by Abu-Rayhan Biruni in the 11C & Ibn Zuhr (Avenzoar) in the 12C (and printed in 1491), Peter of Spain's Commentary on Isaac, & John of St Amand's Commentary on the Antedotary of Nicholas.
The Canon of Medicinae (Al-Qanun fi a'l-Tibb) written by Ibn Sina (980-1037), who is known as Avicenna in the West, was studied as a textbook of medicine for centuries. The Canon Medicinae by Avicen Abu ‘Ali al-Husayn ibn Sina is better known in Europe by the Latinized name “Avicenna.” He is probably the one of the most significant philosophers in the Islamic tradition. Born in Afshana near Bukhara in Central Asia in about 980, he is best known as a physician whose major work the Canon (al-Qanun fi’l-Tibb) continued to be taught as a medical textbook in Europe & in the Islamic world.
Avicenna's Canon of Medicine (1025) lists 800 tested drugs, plants & minerals. Book Two is devoted to a discussion of the healing properties of herbs, including nutmeg, senna, sandalwood, rhubarb, myrrh, cinammon, & rosewater. The Canon of Medicine remained a medical authority, used at many European & Arab medical schools, until the early 19C.
Marco Polo's journeys (1254-1324) in tropical Asia, China, & Persia, the discovery of America (1492), & Vasco De Gama's journeys to India (1498), resulted in many medicinal plants being brought into Europe. Marco Polo was born in around 1254 into a wealthy & cosmopolitan Venetian merchant family. Polo's father & uncle, Niccolò & Maffeo Polo, were jewel merchants who spurred the commercial side of Marco Polo's journeys. In 1000, 1100, 1200, and 1300, China was the most advanced place in the world. Marco Polo recognized this, when he got to China in the late 13C after traveling through much of Asia. In what is now Europe, this was the period now referred to as the “high” Middle Ages, which fostered the Crusades & witnessed the rise of Venice, the mercantile center that was Marco Polo’s home.
