Textbook of Advanced Pharmacognosy & Natural Products
The history of natural medicines is as old as human civilization. The documents,
many of which are great antiquity, revealed that plants were used medicinally in
China, India, Egypt and Greece long before the beginning of the Christian era. In
China, many medicinal plants had been in use since 5000 B.C. The oldest known
herbal is Pen-t'-Sao written by Shen Nung around 3000 B.C. and it contains 365
drugs, one for each day of the year. Ancient Indians, worked meticulously to
examine and classify the herbs which they came across, into groups called Gunas.
Charaka made 50 groups of ten herbs each of which, according to him, would
suffice an ordinary physician's need. Similarly, Sushrutha arranged 760 herbs in
seven distinct sets based on some of their common properties. A large portion of
the Indian population even today depends on the Ayurvedic, Homoeopathy and
Unani system of medicine.
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