All cultures have long folk medicine histories that include the use of plants. Even in ancient cultures, people methodically and scientifically collected information on herbs and developed well-defined herbal pharmacopoeias.

• Archaeological studies at Shanidar in Iraq have shown that Neanderthal man, living over 60,000 years ago had at least a basic pharmacopoeia. Studies have shown that 7 of the 8 species of plant found at the burial site are still commonly used as folk medicine throughout the world. (yarrow, marshmallow, groundsel, centaury,  ephedra, muscari).
• 2000 B.C., Sumeria. The first known materia medica containing 250 herbal drugs (including garlic).
• Kahun Medical Papyrus 1900 B.C. and deals with the health of women, including birthing instructions.
• The Ebers Papyrus, Egyptian manuscripts, was written around 1500 B.C. and includes much earlier information. It contains 876 prescriptions made up of more than 500 different substances.
• The earliest medic texts in India are dating from 1500 BC - 2000 BC, The Characka Samhita, describes 582 herbs. The main book on surgery, the Sushruta Samhita, lists some 600 herbal remedies. Most experts agree that these books are at least 2,000 years old.
• Babylonian and Syrian flourished between 1000 and 2000 B.C.
• The first official Chinese Herbal was published 200 BC and contained 365 herbs. The earliest written evidence of the medicinal use of herbs in China consists of a corpus of 11 medical works, the burial itself is dated 168 B.C., and the texts (written on silk) appear to have been composed before the end of the 3rd century B.C. The Classic of the Materia Medica, compiled no earlier than the 1st century A.D. by unknown authors, was the first Chinese book to focus on the description of individual herbs.
• Hippocrates, the Greek physician, 4th century B.C., taught physicians to consider the influence of diet, water quality, climate, and social environment on illness. He urged treatment of the whole person, not just the symptoms, and to encourage the latent capacity of the body to heal itself.
• Dioscorides, 1st century, wrote De Materia Medica, which described plants, including some familiar plants used today: aloes, aniseed, belladonna, chamomile, ginger, juniper, lavender, and wormwood. For more than 13 centuries in Europe, it was a standard herbal reference.
• Culpeper, Nicholas, 1616-1654, western herbalism was still being practised energetically.
• Up until the 20 Th. Century, every village and rural community had a wealth of herbal folklore. Tried and tested local plants were picked for a range of common health problems. Even as late as the 1930’s, around 90% of medicines prescribed by doctors or sold over the counter were herbal in origin.
• It is estimated that around 70,000 plant species have been used for medicinal purposes. Around 500 herbs are still employed within the modern medicinal system, although whole plants are rarely used. In general the herbs provide for the synthesis of conventional drugs. Such as Digoxin, which is used for heart failure, this was isolated from common Foxglove. Other drugs derived from herbs include strychnine, aspirin, vincristine, taxol, curare, and ergot.
• Biomedicine still relies on plants rather than the laboratory for at least 25% of all its medicines and many of these are amongst the most effective of all conventional drugs, Quinine for Malaria (found in CHIRETTA (India).