Early Herbs

Of the first known herbal, said to have been written by the legendary Chinese emperor. Shen Nung, nearly 5000 years ago, only part of the text survived long enough to be recorded by subsequent writers though many later Chinese herbals base upon on it.

Shen Nung, was the father of agriculture and herbal medicine. He was given credit for authorship of the first native herbal, the Sheng Nung Pen Ts’ao on the basis of his own experiment.

During Han Dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD), physician Tuo Hua collected various herbal formulas for beauty, including powders, ointments and pastes.

Sumerian clay tablets gave us a literature in the form of small clay tablets. Dated from the late fourth millennium BC, they are the earliest known written records about plants in Western civilization.

Other herbal text from early times include Egyptian papyri recording the medicinal uses of herbs, dating from 2800 BC.

The latter mention about marjoram, mint, juniper and other familiar herbs, together with aromatic gums such as frankincense, spices such as cinnamon and cassia and unguents and ointments made by expressing the oil from herbs or by macerating them in fatty oils such as castor oil.

The Egyptians imported herbs and spices along with the knowledge of their use from Babylon and India.

In Egypt the dividing line between medicinal and cosmetic recipes was often blurred and the priests, who generally controlled the manufacture of the substances, were also in-charge of offering of incense and fragrant oils in the temples and the precious ointments that were used for embalming the bodies of the high ranking Egyptians.

Father of modern medicine Hippocrates listed hundred of herbal varieties all taken together to prove and establish the significance , importance and usage of herbs as a means to cure various disease.

In about 500 BC, Herodotus listed about 700 herbs and their uses, many of which remain valid today. In the first century AD, Dioscorides produced a herbal guide, which is still reference on the practice of natural medicines.
Early Herbs