Al-Dinawri the Founder of Arabic Botany(828-896)

 

Ābu Hanīfah Āhmad ibn Dawūd Dīnawarī (828 – 896) was a polymath excelling as much in astronomy, agriculture, botany & metallurgy & as he did in geography, mathematics & history. He was born in Dinawar (in modern day Western Iran, halfway between Hamadan & Kermanshah). He studied astronomy, mathematics & mechanics in Isfahan & philology & poetry in Kufa & Basra. He died on July 24, 896 at Dinawar. His most renowned contribution is Book of Plants, for which he is considered the founder of Arabic botany.

Al-Dinawari is certainly one of the earliest Muslim botanists. His work, largely confined to the flora of Arabia, is perhaps the most comprehensive & methodical philological work on herbs. His treatise Kitab al-Nabat is characterized as “the most comprehensive & methodically most superior work of this philologically-orientated botany.” 

Al-Dinawari’s information is based on older written sources, on oral information from Bedouins, and, occasionally, on personal observation. His book Kitab al-nabat consists of two sections, one being an alphabetical inventory of plant names (and thus the first alphabetically-ordered specialized dictionary), the second section contains monographs on plants used for specific practical purposes: kindling; dyeing; bow-making. 

There is a chapter on mushrooms & similar plants (to the latter belong the parasitic broomrapes Balanophoraceae).  Al-Dinawari also devoted one chapter to the classification of plants (tajnis al-nabat) which he mentions in one of the volumes that have survived.  

In his exposition on the earth, Al-Dinawari describes a variety of soils, explaining which is good for planting, its properties & qualities, & also describes plant evolution from its birth to its death, including the phases of growth & production of flower & fruit. He also covers various crops, including cereals, vineyards & date palms. Relying on his predecessors, he also explains trees, mountains, plains, deserts, aromatic plants, woods, plants used as dyes, honey, bees, etc.

For more information see: The Muslim Heritage Museum's Botany, Herbals and Healing In Islamic Science and Medicine from September 2009

Herbals in the English Language - Bartholomæus Anglicus (c 1200 - 1272) - "De Proprietatibus Rerum" (1495 ed.)

Bartholomeus Anglicus was also known as Bartholomew the Englishman. Bartholomeus Anglicus was a reputable scholar, theologian & a member of the Franciscan order. He was born in England but spent most of his life in Paris & Saxony as a teacher & minister. He is famous for compiling one of the world’s first encyclopedias “On the Properties of Things” (De proprietatibus rerum), which provided scholars of the 13C an important source for extending their knowledge on various subjects.

Not much is known about the Bartholomeus’ background except that he came from England, as his name suggests. It is believed that he was born in Suffolk, while his date of birth is estimated to have been around 1200, & not later than 1203.  It is soculated that he had started his studies at Oxford University, where he studied theology & natural sciences under the tutorship of Robert Grosseteste.

He entered the Franciscan order in 1224 or 1225, together with Haymo of Faversham, a fellow professor. This movement originated within Catholic Church & consisted of the followers of St. Francis of Assisi. He taught at the University of Paris until 1231, when he moved to Magdeburg in Saxony. He accepted the transfer after he was asked by John Parenti, the minister general, who believed that he was the right person for educating people of Saxony, which was a new Franciscan province at the time. After he joined the Franciscan order, he was sent to Saxony to teach the people that belonged to the order there, & he later became the Minister of Austia, Bohemia & Saxony.

Bartholomeus realized that educational opportunities were very limited in the 13C & that even people who wanted to learn didn’t have adequate literature. This is why he set the goal to organize & present all the scientific knowledge gathered until then in a cataloged manner. The result was his greatest work - De proprietatibus rerum (Liber de proprietatibus rerum), the 1st important encyclopedia of medieval times, believed to had been finished around 1240.

Barholomeus organized De proprietatibus rerum in 19 books, gathering & presenting the knowledge in geography, mineralogy, philosophy, chronology, astronomy, theology, medicine, botany & zoology. He made sure to include all the sources known to him, whether they were works of Greek, Arabian or Jewish authors, as well as to cite them properly. Among the authors he cited are Aristotle, Hippocrates, Isaac Medicus, Haly & many others.

The original intention of the book was to serve to him & his students in Saxony, although it was available to the general public. The book achieved great popularity & was soon distributed all over Europe, allowing scholars from the entire continent to extend their knowledge on various subjects. In the 14C, his original work written in Latin was translated into English & French.

In 1247, he was chosen to be the Minister of Austria, & in 1255, the Minister of Bohemia. When he managed to mediate a dispute between the Cathedral Chapter at Krakow & Duke Boleslaw & resolve it, he was appointed as Papal legate & the Bishop of Lukow by Pope Alexander IV. However, he had to evade from Poland because of the Mongol invasion & return to Saxony, where he became the Minister in 1262. He held this position until his death, which is believed to be in 1272, although it cannot be claimed.

Bartholomeus Anglicus is remembered as the author of one of the most important works of the Middle Ages - De proprietatibus rerum, an encyclopedia of all scientific knowledge gathered until then.

Works

De proprietatibus rerum : Bartholomeus Anglicus  

Creation of The Elements

Note:

The Herbals are listed according to authors, or, in the case of anonymous works, according to the names by which they are usually known. In cases where only one copy of an edition is known the library where it is to be found is indicated. 

Bartholomæus Anglicus - "De Proprietatibus Rerum" (1495 ed.) The seventeenth book of De Proprietatibus Rerum - containing 19 chapters - is on herbs. Already a highly successful and popular book in manuscript form since its creation in c. 1230–1240, before being printed in 1495, it was the first Encyclopedia written in the English language. It was also the first original work on plants by an English writer to be printed, and the woodcut at the beginning of the book was probably the first botanical illustration to be printed in an English book. A Latin edition was printed in 1482

1535. Bartholomeus de Proprietatibus Rerum. Londini in Aedibus Thomæ Berthelete. Regii Impressoris.

See:

The Mineralogical Record - Library BARTHOLOMAEUS ANGLICUS.

• Bartholomew's World - Bartholomew the Englishman
• Medieval Bestiary : Bartholomaeus Anglicus
• Bartholomaeus Anglicus Facts
• Mediaeval Lore from Bartholomew Anglicus

Culinary & Medicinal Spice Plants in The Middle Ages

Biblical Holy Women associated with Christ's Resurrection buying anointing spices from merchant in the “Egmont Breviary.” New York, Morgan Library (M.87, fol. 202v). Utrecht, c. 1440.

Winter Spices in The Middle Ages

Princeton University by Jessica Savage, January, 2017

The marketplaces of medieval Europe were redolent of the spices that purportedly 1st arrived with returning Crusaders. A taste for the flavors of cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, ginger, pepper & the like created an increasing demand for spices that could not be grown in Europe’s climate but had to be imported from the East along secret trade routes, over land & sea. Distance was only one of several factors that affected the supply of spices, which were expensive & enjoyed only by those who could afford them...the new taste for exotic flavors helped encourage world exploration & turn spices into global commodities.

The uses of spices were both culinary & medical, and medieval cookbooks & herbals reveal that spices were part of preferred regimens. Spices were taken together in varying combinations, sometimes seasonal. In the cold & wet winter months, it was advisable to eat spices in strongly flavored food & drink to warm the body. Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat notes in her History of Food that the physician Arnau de Villanova (c. 1240-1311) recommended balancing the 7 humors of the body by consuming spices “proper for winter” as zesty sauces of ginger, clove, cinnamon, & pepper... These spices would aid digestion after a heavy winter meal by heightening the effects of “hot” & “humid” properties in roasted meats. To this day, the warming spices advocated by Arnau de Villanova tend to be associated with fall & winter.

Cameline sauce, perhaps the original steak sauce, was the perfect accompaniment to roast meats. Prepared in summer & winter months alike, the sauce was so popular in some locations, such as 14C Paris, that the blend was usually readily available from the local sauce maker. There were regional varieties of Cameline sauce, too, & the “Tournais style” involved grinding together ginger, cinnamon, saffron & half a nutmeg. The spice powder was soaked in wine & stirred together with bread crumbs. The strained mixture was then boiled, with sugar added to make the winter variety of the sauce...

Ginger inscribed ζηγγίβερις (a phonetic spelling of the Greek word) in the “De Materia Medica” of Dioscorides. New York, Morgan Library (M.652, fol. 57v). Constantinople, 940-960.

Ginger came to be highly prized during the Middle Ages, though the use of ginger can be traced back thousands of years in India & China. The potent ginger plant & rhizomes were valued for their stomach-warming & digestive properties as much as for the flavors they imparted. The first-century Greek physician Dioscorides advocated consuming a spicy Arabian plant called ζιγγίβερις (zingiberis), which was probably ginger, to “soften the intestines gently.” In Arabia, Dioscorides noted, they used only the freshest ginger plants...

Clove was known as one of the “lesser spices.” Though not as strong as ginger but useful for its antiseptic & anti-inflammatory properties, clove was especially useful in dental care.

Clove in initial G of “Girofle” in the “Régime du Corps” by Aldabrandino da Siena. New York, Morgan Library (M.165, fol. 106r). Rouen (? ), c. 1445.

Named in English & other languages—“clou de girofle” in French—for the resemblance of the bud to nails, clove originated in the Moluccan Islands of Indonesia, the historical core of the Spice Islands. As with ginger, clove had its earliest uses in India & China in the 4 BCE, finding its way to Roman & Greek markets by way of port cities on the Mediterranean. By the 8C, clove was known throughout Europe & features in several historic dishes. It was also a typical spice in pomanders, the medieval precursor to potpourri, in which fragrant ingredients were placed in a perforated box to ward off illness. The decorative use of clove-studded oranges, a seasonal pomander, is still associated with the winter months.

Cinnamon tree inscribed CINAMOMUM in the pharmacological manual the “Circa instans” of Matthaeus Platearius. New York, Morgan Library (M.873, fol. 26r). Venice (?), 1350-1375.

Hippocras, or hypocras, was a medieval spiced wine & popular cordial enjoyed especially during the winter holidays for several centuries. Hippocras was a concoction of powdered cinnamon, cassia buds, ginger, grains of paradise & nutmeg boiled with sugar & wine. Cinnamon, the essential flavor of hippocras, was a favorite spice of the medieval palate. Its mysterious origins generated many fanciful tales & even several expeditions. Perhaps most famously, the Genoese explorer Christopher Columbus thought he had located the spice in America—the Indies to him— & in 1493 he reportedly brought back bits of bark from a perfumed wild cinnamon tree that was not very tasty.

Long before Columbus, the ancient Egyptians had prized cinnamon as the “… goodly fragrant woods of The Divine Land…” In the 1C, the Roman natural philosopher Pliny the Elder rightly located the origin of cinnamon on the shores of the Indian Ocean. With information from some seasoned merchant, perhaps, Pliny knew that the cinnamon trade was dangerous & that a return trip to the source of the spice took almost 5 years. Pliny’s claims about the origin of cinnamon were eventually verified in the 1340s, when the Moroccan explorer Ibn Battuta (1304–c. 1368) arrived at the island of Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) & discovered untouched miles of the cinnamon tree. Before its widespread appreciation as a culinary ingredient, cinnamon was prized in several ancient cultures as incense holding ritualistic importance, sometimes burned for its fragrance on a funeral pyre.

The final “proper” winter spice is pepper. With a name widely applied to many spices, including the black & white varieties, pepper was perhaps the most familiar spice of the Middle Ages. Both black pepper & white pepper are obtained from the small berries of the Piper nigrum vine.

Serpents wound around pepper trees in “Marvels of the East.” Oxford: Bodleian Library (Bodl.614, fol. 38r). English, 1120-1140. Photograph by University of Oxford, Bodleian Library.

Unripe berries are green, & ripe berries are red. Dried ripe berries yield white pepper, & despite the fantastic medieval legend propagated by Isidore of Seville (560–636) that the scorching of pepper crops blackened the berries & drove out the poisonous guard snakes, unripe pepper berries are simply plucked, gathered, cooked, & then dried to give us the most familiar variety, black pepper. The principal traders of pepper came from India, where the vines thrived in tropical regions. Pepper was used in medicine to aid digestion & to treat ailments like gout & arthritis, as well as infectious diseases like the bubonic plague.

Monkey using mortar & pestle in upper margin of the “Hours of Charlotte of Savoy.” New York, Morgan Library (M.1004, fol. 164r). Paris, 1420-1425.

The term “peppercorn rent” derives from the practice established in early common law in England that payment of rent or tax might be made by a peppercorn, to avoid the bother of exchanging real currency. Usually no peppercorns were actually collected during these transactions, but the spice represented a hard asset, and the term is still in use today in legal parlance to describe a token amount of rent money paid in order to keep a title alive. In all seasons, spices & their increasingly globalized trade during the Middle Ages affected medieval economies, & brought social, culinary, & health benefits to Europe...

Roman Cornelius Celsus (25 BC-AD 50) Medicinal Plants in De Medicina

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  

The Roman nobleman Cornelius Celsus (25 BC-AD 50) wrote a general encyclopedia (De Artibus) dealing with several subjects, among which some had medical content (De Medicina), an 8-volume compendium. 

It is the most significant medical document following the Hippocratic writings. In 1443, Pope Nicolas V re-introduced the work of Cornelius Celsus, despite it having been forgotten for several centuries, & it was the 1st medical & surgical book to be printed (AD 1478). 

Up until the 19C, 60 editions were published in Latin as well as numerous translations in European languages, the last of which was a French translation in 1876. While Celsus' work is the best account of Roman medicine as practiced in the 1st century of the Christian era & its influence persisted until the 19C, there is some controversy as to whether Cornelius Celsus himself actually practiced as a surgeon or was an encyclopedist who collected in the Latin language the medical knowledge available at that time.

116 BCE Marcus Terentius Varro (116 BC-27 BCE) Rome Early Farms & Gardens

 Varro, On Agriculture (1st century)

Marcus Terentius Varro (116 BC-27 BC) was a Roman scholar & writer. Varro was recognized as an important source for the study of early agriculture & gardening by many other ancient authors, among them Cicero, Pliny the Elder, Virgil in the Georgics, Columella, Aulus Gellius, Macrobius, Augustine, & Vitruvius.

Book I

“So far as concerns the natural situation,” said Stolo, “it seems to me that Cato was quite right when he said that the best farm was one that was situated at the foot of a mountain, facing south.” Scrofa continued: “with regard to the conformation due to cultivation, I maintain that the more regard is had for appearances the greater will be the profits: as, for instance, if those who have orchards plant them in quincunxes, with regular rows and at moderate intervals. Thus our ancestors, on the same amount of land but not so well laid out, made less wine and grain than we do, and of a poorer quality; for plants which are placed exactly where each should be take up less ground and screen each other less from the sun, the moon, and the air. You may prove this by one of several experiments; for instance, a quantity of nuts which you can hold in a modius measure with their shells whole, because the shells naturally keep them compacted, you can scarcely pack into a modius and a half when they are cracked. As to the second point, trees which are planted in a row are warmed by the sun and the moon equally on all sides, with the result that more grapes and olives form, and that they ripen earlier; which double result has the double consequence that they yield more must and oil, and of greater...

“Especial care should be taken, in locating the steading, to place it at the foot of a wooded hill, where there are broad pastures, and so as to be exposed to the most healthful winds that blow in the region. A steading facing the east has the best situation, as it has the shade in summer and the sun in winter. If you are forced to build on the bank of a river, be careful not to let the steading face the river, as it will be extremely cold in winter, and unwholesome in summer. Precautions must also be taken in the neighbourhood of swamps, both for the reasons given, and because there are bred certain minute creatures which cannot be seen by the eyes, which float in the air and enter the body through the mouth and nose and there cause serious diseases...

“Now I shall speak of the enclosures which are constructed for the protection of the farms as a whole, or its divisions. There are four types of such defences: the natural, the rustic, the military, and the masonry type; and each of these types has several varieties. The first type, the natural, is a hedge, usually planted with brush or thorn, having roots and being alive, and so with nothing to fear from the flaming torch of a mischievous passer-by. The second type, the rustic, is made of wood, but is not alive. It is built either of stakes planted close and intertwined with brush; or of thick posts with holes bored through, having rails, usually two or three to the panel, thrust into the openings; or of trimmed trees placed end to end, with the branches driven into the ground. The third, or military type, is a trench and bank of earth; but the trench is adequate only if it can hold all the rain water, or has a slope sufficient to enable it to drain the water off the land. The bank is serviceable which is close to the ditch on the inside, or so steep that it is not easy to climb. This type of enclosure is usually built along public roads and along streams. At several points along the Via Salaria, in the district of Crustumeria, one may see banks combined with trenches to prevent the river from injuring the fields. Banks built without trenches, such as occurs in the district of Reate, are sometimes called walls. The fourth and last type of fence, that of masonry, is a wall, and there are usually four varieties: that which is built of stone, such as occurs in the district of Tusculum; that of burned brick, such as occurs in the Ager Gallicus; that of sun-dried brick, such as occurs in the Sabine country; and that formed of earth and gravel in moulds, such as occurs in Spain and the district of Tarentum...

“Furthermore, if there are no enclosures, the boundaries of the estate are made more secure by the planting of trees, which prevent the servants from quarrelling with the neighbours, and make it unnecessary to fix the boundaries by lawsuits. Some plant pines around the edges, as my wife has done on her Sabine farms; others plant cypresses, as I did on my place on Vesuvius; and still others plant elms, as many have done near Crustumeria. Where that is possible, as it is there because it is a plain, there is no tree better for planting; it is extremely profitable, as it often supports and gathers many a basket of grapes, yields a most agreeable foliage for sheep and cattle, and furnishes rails for fencing, and wood for hearth and furnace.”

Varro, Marcus Terentius. On Agriculture. Transl. W.D. Hooper and H.B. Ash. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999

Theophrastus (371 - 287 BC) "The Father of Botany"

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. Among others, he referred to cinnamon, iris rhizome, false hellebore, mint, pomegranate, cardamom, fragrant hellebore, monkshood, & so forth. In the description of the plant toxic action, Theophrast underscored the important feature for humans to become accustomed to them by a gradual increase of the doses. Owing to his consideration of these issues, he gained the epithet of “the father of botany,” given that he was given great credit for his classification & description of medicinal plants.

Trinity College in Dublin tells us that Theophrastus was born in 370 B.C. & was a student of Aristotle, who bequeathed to Theophrastus his writings, & designated him as his successor at his School. He was a scholar, botanist, biologist, & physicist. The most important of his books are two large botanical treatises, Enquiry into Plants, & On the Causes of Plants, which constitute the 1st systemization of the botanical world & were major sources for botanical knowledge during antiquity & the Middle Ages. On the strength of these works some call him the "father of botany."

These books documented types of plants commonly used at the time, & described attempts to cultivate wild plants. Theophrastus developed his own vocabulary to describe plant processes & horticultural & agricultural efforts. He was concerned about the many species of unidentified & unknown plants of the wilderness. He commissioned his students & staff to collect specimens & conduct experiments as they worked, which helped to determine which plants could be put to various uses.

The Enquiry into Plants was originally 10 books, of which 9 survive. The work is arranged into a system whereby plants are classified according to their modes of generation, their localities, their sizes, & according to their practical uses such as foods, juices, herbs, 

The 1st book deals with the parts of plants; the 2nd with the reproduction of plants & the times & manner of sowing; the 3rd, 4th & 5th books are devoted to trees, their types, their locations, & their practical applications; the 6th deals with shrubs & spiny plants; the 7th deals with herbs; the 8th deals with plants which produce edible seeds; & the 9th deals with plants which produce useful juices, gums, resins, etc.

On the Causes of Plants was originally 8 books, of which 6 survive. It concerns the growth of plants; the influences on their fecundity; the proper times they should be sown & reaped; the methods of preparing the soil, manuring it, & the use of tools; of the smells, tastes, & properties of many types of plants. The work deals mainly with the economical uses of plants rather than their medicinal uses, although the latter are sometimes mentioned. Although these works contain many absurd & fabulous statements, as a whole they have many valuable observations concerning the functions & properties of plants. Theophrastus detected the process of germination & realized the importance of climate & soil to plants. 

Much of the information on the Greek plants may have come from his own observations, as he is known to have travelled throughout Greece, & to have had a botanical garden of his own; but the works also profit from the reports on plants of Asia brought back from those who followed Alexander the Great. To the reports of Alexander's followers he owed his accounts of such plants as the cotton-plant, banyan, pepper, cinnamon, myrrh & frankincense.

From: Theophrastus (371 - 287 BC) from Trinity College Dublin, University of Dublin

Early Greek Writings 430-330 BCE on Plants as Food & Medicine Translated to Arabic

Philosophers at Dinner belongs to the literary tradition inspired by the use of the Greek banquet. Banqueters playing Kottabos while a musician plays the Aulos

David Waines tells us that the written origins of connecting edible plants with "the systematic control of food and drink in order to conserve health or combat disease." in written records can be traced back to the Hippocratic Corpus, written chiefly between 430 and 330 BC. 

The Hippocratic Corpus or Hippocratic Collection, is a collection of about 60 early Ancient Greek medical works traditionally associated with the physician Hippocrates & his teachings. The Hippocratic Corpus covers many diverse aspects of medicine, from Hippocrates' medical theories to what he devised to be ethical means of medical practice, to addressing various illnesses. Even though it is considered as a singular corpus representing Hippocratic medicine, they vary (sometimes significantly) in content, age, style, methods, & views practiced; therefore, true authorship is largely unknown. Hippocrates began Western society's development of medicine, through a delicate blending of the art of healing & scientific observations. Hippocrates shared not only how to identify symptoms of disease & proper diagnostic practices, but more essentially, he was alluding to his own form of art, "The art of true living & the art of fine medicine combined." The Hippocratic Corpus became the foundation upon which Western medical practice was built.

"Galen of Pergamum (129 to c. 200/216), the successor to the Hippocratic Corpus, is a fundamental source for information on food & diet in the classical world. In today's printed edition of his writings, the effect of food on health is noted in  several hundred pages. His formulation of what constituted a healthy life survived to the threshold of the modern period. Apart from the Hippocratic Corpus, Galen's chief sources on dietetics were authors writing around the year 300 BC.

"During the 6C & 7C, there appears to have been a decline in the influence of the Greek medical tradition as the Eastern Mediterranean world underwent profound changes as the religious culture of Islam emerged and expanded.  

"Arabic medical writing started in the early 8C during the creative & dynamic formative period of the Islamic community. Many Greek medical works including the Hippocratic Corpus & those of Galen were translated into Arabic.

"A translation movement with its center in Baghdad, the dynastic capital of the 'Abbasid Caliphs, introduced to an Arabic reading audience the medical works of the Hippocratic Corpus and those of Galen.  In fact, many works of lesser ranking figures such as Rufus of Ephesus, active at the end of the 1C AD, survive only in Arabic translation.

"The earliest extant culinary manual, Kitdb al-tabi-kh, compiled by Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq (of whom nothing is otherwise known) belongs to the late 10C although it contains evidence of a high culinary culture dating from the early 9C.

"Al-Warraq’s compilation like other culinary manuals, reflected a close awareness of contemporary medical views on dietetics. Several of the opening chapters deal with subjects reflecting the influence of the Greek dietetic tradition. In a later collection of recipes, dating from 13C &14C Egypt, such information is diffused throughout the book, where comments on the benefits of a particular dish are often included along with the recipe itself.

"‘Abd al-Malik b. Habib (d. 853). Born in al-Andalus, he practiced as a jurist in Cordoba following a three-year sojourn in Egypt & Mecca where, among his other activities, he gathered material for a medical compendium in which he dealt with the cure of illness & the preservation of health chiefly by means of food & diet.

 "All of this illustrates a dialogue between medical professionals & laymen in medieval Islamic culture, each group to some extent informing & being informed by the other. The culinary manuals provide a clue to the nature of this relationship. They point to the central place of the domestic household in the life of the leisured urban class in Islamic societies, where not only proper nourishment could be provided to its members but also remedies for minor ailments or disorders which did not initially, at least, require the physician’s expert knowledge of drugs to combat more serious disorders."

David Waines Dietetics in Medieval Islamic Culture, Medical Historv, 1999, 43: 228-240

Hippocrates (459–370 BCE) daid to have noted 300 Medicinal Plants

Hippocrates (459–370 BC) 

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

Hippocrates is identifoed as an ancient Greek physician who lived during Greece’s Classical period & is traditionally regarded as the father of medicine. It is difficult to isolate the facts of Hippocrates’ life from the later tales told about him. About 60 medical writings have survived that bear his name, many of which probably were not written by him. 

Throughout his journey of exploration Hippocrates is reported to have traveled widely in Greece & Asia Minor practicing his art & teaching, & he presumably taught at the medical school at Cos frequently. His birth & death dates are traditional but may well be approximately accurate. Although contemporary documentation of his life & works is scant, Hippocrates exercised a permanent influence on the development of medicine & on the ideals & ethics of the physicianAlthough historical sources confirm that Hippocrates documented approximately 300 medicinal plants, no definitive, single list of them exists today. The specific works containing these original lists from the Hippocratic Corpus have been lost to time. What is known comes from fragments and summaries found in the writings of other ancient authors and later medical texts. 

The following are just a few of plants known to have been used or described in the Hippocratic Corpus, often grouped by their reported medicinal action. 

Narcotic and analgesic plants

Opium Poppy (Papaver somniferum): A powerful narcotic used for pain and to induce sleep.

Mandrake (Mandragora officinarum): Used as an anesthetic and narcotic, but also known for its toxicity.

Henbane (Hyoscyamus niger): A poisonous plant used as a narcotic and sedative.

Deadly Nightshade (Atropa belladonna): Used for its anesthetic properties, though highly toxic.

Juniper (Juniperus species): Berries were used for relieving pain and chills, particularly after childbirth. 

Digestive and diuretic plants

Garlic (Allium sativum): Used against intestinal parasites and as a diuretic.

Sea Onion (Drimia maritima, formerly Scilla maritima): Prescribed as a diuretic.

Parsley (Petroselinum crispum): Used as a diuretic.

Celery (Apium graveolens): Used as a diuretic.

Asparagus (Asparagus officinalis): Used as a diuretic.

Mastic (Pistacia lentiscus): The resin was used for digestive issues and oral health.

Lovage (Levisticum officinale): Used as a digestive aid. 

Astringent and antiseptic plants

Oak (Quercus species): The bark was used as an astringent.

Pomegranate (Punica granatum): The fruit was used as an astringent.

Myrtle (Myrtus communis): Used as an astringent lotion and for feminine hygiene.

Thyme (Thymus vulgaris): Used as an antiseptic and for respiratory issues. 

Antipyretic and anti-inflammatory plants

Wormwood (Artemisia absinthium): Used against fever.

Common Centaury (Centaurium umbellatum): Used against fever.

Chamomile (Matricaria recutita): Used for purification and against colds, with sedative and relaxant properties.

Willow Bark (Salix species): A natural source of a precursor to aspirin, used for pain and fever.

Sage (Salvia officinalis): Used to enhance mental abilities, improve digestion, and soothe inflammation.

Lady's Mantle (Alchemilla vulgaris): Used to treat excessive menstruation and inflammation. 

Emetic and other plants

Fragrant Hellebore (Helleborus species): A highly toxic plant used as an emetic to induce vomiting.

Haselwort (Asarum europaeum): Used as an emetic.

Mint (Mentha species): Used for indigestion, coughs, and headaches.

Dill (Anethum graveolens): Used to heal wounds and promote sleep.

Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare): Used in antiquity for its medicinal properties.