A Brief History of Herbs in Medicine

It is believed that around 400 B. C the Greeks started to use herbs to cure many illnesses. According to Hippocrates–the father of Western medicine believed that your body had four types of fluids, and in order to keep your body healthy, you needed to keep the four body fluids in balance. Hippocrates used many herbs: fennel, saffron, rosemary to cure people. He also believed that exercising; massages and other forms of therapies would keep your body’s fluids in balance. 

The Romans used garlic to help injured soldiers. Before the soldiers went to war, doctors would rub the soldiers feet with garlic oil. According to them, the garlic oil would make the immune system stronger and it would aid in healing when a solider was injured. Garlic was also used to combat colds and basil was used to relieve cramps. What’s more, the idea that all plants could be used to cure illnesses if used in the correct way. 

During the medieval era, the local community started to attack local healers that were using herbs because they believed that it was the work of the devil. Thanks to the stupidity of these people, the community stopped using herbs for treatment.  

With the turn of the 15th century, Dr. Paracelsus started to work with herbs and invented several natural therapies to cure illnesses. His devotion made the herbal treatment popular again. However, with the arrival of the 20th century and pharmaceutical companies and their magical drugs, people started to take drugs and some of them forgot about drinking or using herbs. And before you know it, pharmaceutical companies hired chemists to extract some active ingredients from herbs, added other chemicals to make what we call today “medication”