BIOGRAPHY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS VIZ A VIZ MEDICINAL PLANTS

AS FOLK MEDICINESBY

MR.ALLAH DAD KHAN

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION SAID ABOUT MEDICINAL PLANT According to World Health Organization

(WHO), about 70 percent of the world’s population

relies on plants for their primary health care .

35,000 to 70,000 species has been used as Medicaments .

14-28% of the 250,000 plants species estimated to occur around the world .

35-70% of all species used world-wide . In today’s global market, more than 50

major drugs originated from tropical plants

Flora of China and North America have almost the same numbers of flowering plants  around 35,000 .

However, traditional Chinese medicine use 5000 of them, but Native Americans used 2564 medicinal plant

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS Healing with medicinal plants is as old as

mankind itself. The connection between man and his search

for drugs in nature dates from the far past, of which there is ample evidence from various sources: written documents, preserved monuments, and even original plant medicines.

Awareness of medicinal plants usage is a result of the many years of struggles against illnesses due to which man learned to pursue drugs in barks, seeds, fruit bodies, and other parts of the plants.

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS Archaeology evidences

shows that Paleothic used Medicinal plants 60000 years back.

The oldest written evidence of medicinal plants’ usage for preparation of drugs has been found on a Sumerian clay slab from Nagpur, approximately 5000 years old.

It comprised 12 recipes for drug preparation referring to over 250 various plants, some of them alkaloid such as poppy, henbane, and mandrake.[

2700 BC - CHINESE EMPEROR SHEN NUNG SAID TO DISCOVER HEALING PROPERTIES OF MARIJUANA "According to Chinese

legend, the emperor Shen Nung (circa 2700 BC; also known as Chen Nung) [considered the Father of Chinese medicine] discovered marijuana's healing properties as well as those of two other mainstays of Chinese herbal medicine, ginseng and ephedra

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS2500 BC The Chinese book on

roots and grasses “Pen T’Sao,” written by Emperor Shen Nung circa 2500 BC, treats 365 drugs (dried parts of medicinal plants), many of which are used even nowadays such as the following: Rhei rhisoma, camphor, Theae folium, Podophyllum, the great yellow gentian, ginseng, jimson weed, cinnamon bark, and ephedra

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS1550 BC The Ebers Papyrus,

written circa 1550 BC, represents a collection of 800 proscriptions referring to 700 plant species and drugs used for therapy such as pomegranate, castor oil plant, aloe, senna, garlic, onion, fig, willow, coriander, juniper, common centaury, and cannabis for inflammation etc

1500 BC - EARLIEST WRITTEN REFERENCE TO MEDICAL MARIJUANA IN CHINESE PHARMACOPEIA "The use of

cannabis for purposes of healing predates recorded history. The earliest written reference is found in the 15th century BC Chinese Pharmacopeia, the Rh-Ya

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS800 BC In Homer's epics The Iliad

and The Odysseys, created circa 800 BC, 63 plant species from the Minoan, Mycenaean, and Egyptian Assyrian pharmacotherapy were referred to. Some of them were given the names after mythological characters from these epics; for instance, Elecampane (Inula helenium L. Asteraceae) was named in honor of Elena, who was the centre of the Trojan War

700 BC - MEDICAL USE OF MARIJUANA IN THE MIDDLE EAST RECORDED IN THE VENIDAD

"The Venidad, one of the volumes of the Zend-Avesta, the ancient Persian religious text written around the seventh century BC purportedly by Zoroaster (or Zarathustra), the founder of Zoroastrianism, and heavily influenced by the Vedas, mentions bhang and lists cannabis as the most important of 10,000 medicinal plants."

Persian Prophet and Philosopher Zoroaster

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS500 BC Herodotus (500 BC) referred to

castor oil plant, Orpheus to the fragrant hellebore and garlic, and Pythagoras to the sea onion (Scilla maritima), mustard, and cabbage. The works of Hippocrates (459–370 BC) contain 300 medicinal plants classified by physiological action: Wormwood and common centaury (Centaurium umbellatum Gilib) were applied against fever; garlic against intestine parasites; opium, henbane, deadly nightshade, and mandrake were used as narcotics; fragrant hellebore and haselwort as emetics; sea onion, celery, parsley, asparagus, and garlic as diuretics; oak and pomegranate as adstringents

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS459-370 BC The works of Hippocrates

(459–370 BC) contain 300 medicinal plants classified by physiological action: Wormwood and common centaury (Centaurium umbellatum Gilib) were applied against fever; garlic against intestine parasites; opium, henbane, deadly nightshade, and mandrake were used as narcotics; fragrant hellebore and haselwort as emetics; sea onion, celery, parsley, asparagus, and garlic as diuretics; oak and pomegranate as adstringents

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS371-287 BC 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.

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS25 BC -50AD In his work “De re

medica” 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

1 AD - ANCIENT CHINESE TEXT RECOMMENDS MARIJUANA FOR MORE THAN 100 AILMENTS In a compendium of drug

recipes compiled in 1 AD [Pen Ts'ao Ching], based on traditions from the time of Shen Nung, marijuana is depicted as an ideogram [pictorial symbol] of plants drying in a shed. This ancient text... recommends marijuana for more than 100 ailments, including gout, rheumatism, malaria, and absentmindedness.

Chinese ideogram for marijuana ("ma")

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS65 AD In 65 A.D., Dioscorides, a Greek,

wrote his Materia Medica (13.152.6). This was a practical text dealing with the medicinal use of more than 600 plants.

In the second century, Galen synthesized much of what has been attributed to Hippocrates. To further his understanding of bodily functions, he performed animal and even human dissections and was able to demonstrate that the arteries carried blood rather than air.

Galenic theories had great longevity, prevailing in western Europe until the sixteenth century.

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS23AD – 79 AD Pliny the Elder (23 AD-

79), a contemporary of Dioscorides, who travelled throughout Germany and Spain, wrote about approximately 1000 medicinal plants in his book “Historia naturalis.” Pliny's and Dioscorides’ works incorporated all knowledge of medicinal plants at the time.

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS77 AD In ancient history, the

most prominent writer on plant drugs was Dioscorides, “the father of pharmacognosy,” who, as a military physician and pharmacognosist of Nero's Army, studied medicinal plants wherever he travelled with the Roman Army. Circa 77 AD he wrote the work “De Materia Medica.”

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS131-200 AD The most

distinguished Roman physician (concurrently a pharmacist), Galen (131 AD–200), compiled the first list of drugs with similar or identical action (parallel drugs), which are interchangeable—“De succedanus.

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS222 -350 AD Tea is first mentioned in

Chinese writing in 222 AD as a substitute for wine, and in a circa 350 AD Chinese dictionary. By the third century AD tea was being advocated for its properties as a healthy, refreshing drink and the benefits of tea drinking, but it was not until the Nobility of the Tang Dynasty (618 AD - 906 AD) made tea fashionable, that tea became China's national drink

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS742-814 AD Charles the Great (742

AD–814), the founder of the reputed medical school in Salerno, in his “Capitularies” ordered which medicinal plants were to be grown on the state-owned lands. Around 100 different plants were quoted, which have been used till present days such as sage, sea onion, iris, mint, common centaury, poppy, marsh mallow, etc.

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS850 AD Throughout the

Middle Ages European physicians consulted the Arab works “De Re Medica” by John Mesue (850 AD).

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS850 AD “Canon Medicinae” by Avicen Abu ‘Ali al-Husayn ibn Sina is

better known in Europe by the Latinized name “Avicenna.” He is probably the most significant philosopher in the Islamic tradition and arguably the most influential philosopher of the pre-modern era. Born in Afshana near Bukhara in Central Asia in about 980, he is best known as a polymath, as a physician whose major work the Canon (al-Qanun fi’l-Tibb) continued to be taught as a medical textbook in Europe and in the Islamic worldna

ABŪ DĀWŪD, SULAYMĀN IBN ḤASSĀN IBN JULJUL (ARABIC:  جلجل ابن حسان بن  C. 944) (سليمانCÓRDOBA, SPAIN, – C. 994)  Andalusian Muslim physici

an and pharmacologist who wrote an important book on the history of medicine. His works on pharmacology were frequently quoted by physicians in Muslim Spain during the 10th and 11th centuries. Some of his works were later studied by Albertus Magnus, like De secretis, but were attributed to a Latinized version of his name, Gilgil

ALI IBN AL-HUSAIN IBN AL-WAFID ( عليالوافد بن الحسين ,(CA.1074-997) (بن

known in Latin Europe as Abenguefit, was a pharmacologist and physician from Toledo. He was the vizier of Al-Mamun of Toledo. His main work is Kitāb al-adwiya al-mufrada ( األدوية كتاب translated ,المفردةinto Latin as De medicamentis simplicibus).[

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS1197-1248 AD “Liber Magnae

Collectionis Simplicum Alimentorum Et Medicamentorum”

Abu Muhammad Abdallah Ibn Ahmad Ibn al-Baitar Dhiya al-Din al-Malaqi (known as Ibn al-Baitar, circa 1197–1248 AD) was an Andalusian Arab scientist, botanist, pharmacist, and physician. He was born in Malaga, Spain, and died in Damascus, Syria.

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS1254-1324 AD Marco Polo's journeys

(1254-1324) in tropical Asia, China, and Persia.

Marco Polo was born in around 1254 into a wealthy and cosmopolitan Venetian merchant family. Polo's father and uncle, Niccolò and Maffeo Polo, were jewel merchants

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS1492-1498 AD Discovery of America

(1492), and Vasco De Gama's journeys to India (1498), resulted in many medicinal plants being brought into Europe. Botanical gardens emerged all over Europe, and attempts were made for cultivation of domestic medicinal plants and of the ones imported from the old and the new world

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS1493-1541 AD Paracelsus (1493-

1541) was one of the proponents of chemically prepared drugs out of raw plants and mineral substances; nonetheless, he was a firm believer that the collection of those substances ought to be astrologically determined

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS1753 AD In 18th century, in his

work Species Plantarium (1753), Linnaeus (1707-1788) provided a brief description and classification of the species described until then. "The Species of Plants") is a book byCarl Linnaeus originally published in 1753,.

HISTORY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS1806-1878 ADEarly 19th century was a turning point in

the knowledge and use of medicinal plants. The discovery, substantiation, and isolation of alkaloids from

1. Poppy (1806),2. Ipecacuanha (1817).3. Strychnos (1817).4. Quinine (1820).5. Pomegranate (1878).

AJMAL KHAN (OR HAKIMAJMAL KHAN) (1868–1927) was an Indian

physician specialising in the field of South Asian traditionalUnani medicine as well as a Muslim Nationalist, politician and freedom fighter. Through his founding of the Tibbia College in Delhi, he is credited with the revival of Unani medicine in early 20th century India

HAKIM MUHAMMAD SAEED 1920-1998 AD  (Urdu:  سعید محمد 9; حکیم

January 1920 – 17 October 1998, NI, PhD) was a medical researcher, scholar, philanthropist, and a Governor of Sindh Province, Pakistan from 1993 until 1996. Saeed was one of Pakistan's most prominent medical researchers in the field of Eastern medicines. He established the Hamdard Foundation in 1948, prior to his settlement in Pakistan.