European Herbal Traditions

The ancient Greeks left an indelible mark on the classical European medical tradition. Possibly the most famous of all doctors was Hippocrates, immortalized as the namesake of the Hippocratic Oath, who placed great emphasis on diet, fresh water, sunshine and exercise. The Romans likewise out pictured this approach to health in their incomparable system of aqueducts, the guarantors of fresh water.
The Romans contributed the second of the most outstanding ancient doctors, known to posterity as Pliny. Pliny was the author of an extraordinary work entitled Natural History. This amazing, 37-volume encyclopedia contains multitudinous facts about "plant sorceries" and draws on information gathered from traditions as far-flung as the herbal practices of the mist-shrouded Druids.


Hippocrates and Pliny are joined by two other classical herbal practitioners born in the 1st century AD: Dioscorides and Galen. Dioscorides was the author of De Materia Medica, a work regarded as the cornerstone of modern botany and the most influential pharmaceutical guide prior to the modern era. Galen was a brilliant and highly successful Roman doctor. Galen was so closely associated with medicinal plants that "galenicals" and "galenic products" are terms still used today by pharmacists to differentiate herbal medicines from synthetic ones.
As modern medicine progressed into the 19th century, laboratories and chemical compounds gained precedence. By 1850, herbalism was effectively outlawed in most European countries through the requirement that herbalists possess medical certification. In the last 25 years, however, herbal medicine has been freed of these onerous limitations and has subsequently returned to the forefront of health and healing.
Kathleen Karlsen is a mother of five children with a passionate interest in creating a world where children and youth are free to grow in imagination and joy. She has a lifelong interest in metaphysics, psychology, healing and the arts. She manages a multimedia business with her husband Andrew in Bozeman, Montana.
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