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Middle Ages[edit]

During this time, herbalism was mainly practiced by women, particularly among Germanic tribes. However, there were three major sources of information on healing at the time including the Arabian School, Anglo-Saxon Leechcraft, and Salerno. A great scholar of the Arabian School included Avicenna, who wrote The Canon of Medicine which became the standard medical reference work of the Arab world. "The Canon of Medicine is known for its introduction of systematic experimentation and the study of physiology, the discovery of contagious diseases and sexually transmitted diseases, the introduction of quarantine to limit the spread of infectious diseases, the introduction of experimental medicine, clinical trials, and the idea of a syndrome in the diagnosis of specific diseases. ...The Canon includes a description of some 760 medicinal plants and the medicine that could be derived from them." With Leechcraft, though bringing to mind part of their treatments, Leech was the English term for medical practitioner. Salerno was a famous school in Italy centered around health and medicine. A student of the school was Constantine the African, credited with bringing Arab medicine to Europe.

Early modern era[edit] (1500-1800s)

The 16th and 17th centuries were the great age of herbals, many of them available for the first time in English and other languages rather than Latin or Greek. The 18th and 19th centuries saw more incorporation of plants found in the Americas, but also the advance of modern medicine.

16th Century

The first herbal to be published in English was the anonymous Grete Herball of 1526. The two best-known herbals in English were The Herball or General History of Plants (1597) by John Gerard and The English Physician Enlarged (1653) by Nicholas Culpeper. Gerard’s text was basically a pirated translation of a book by the Belgian herbalist Dodoens and his illustrations came from a German botanical work. The original edition contained many errors due to faulty matching of the two parts. Culpepper’s blend of traditional medicine with astrology, magic, and folklore was ridiculed by the physicians of his day, yet his book - like Gerard’s and other herbals - enjoyed phenomenal popularity. The Age of Exploration and the Columbian Exchange introduced new medicinal plants to Europe. The Badianus Manuscript was an illustrated Mexican herbal written in Nahuatl and Latin in the 16th century.[39]

17th Century

The second millennium, however, also saw the beginning of a slow erosion of the pre-eminent position held by plants as sources of therapeutic effects. This began with the Black Death, which the then dominant Four Element medical system proved powerless to stop. A century later, Paracelsus introduced the use of active chemical drugs (like arsenic, copper sulfate, iron, mercury, and sulfur).

18th Century

In the Americas, herbals were relied upon for most medical knowledge with physicians being few and far between. These books included almanacs, Dodoens' New Herbal, Edinburgh New Dispensatory, Buchan's Domsestic Medicine, and other works. Aside from European knowledge on American plants, Native Americans shared some of their knowledge with colonist, but most of these records were not written and compiled until the 19th century. John Bartram was a botanist that studied the remedies that Native Americans would share and often included bits of knowledge of these plants in printed almanacs.

19th Century

The formalization of pharmacology in the 19th Century lead to greater understanding of the specific actions drugs have on the body. At that time, Samuel Thompson was an uneducated but well respected herbalist who influenced professional opinions so much that Doctors and Herbalists would refer to themselves as Thompsonians. They distinguished themselves from "regular" doctors of the time who used calomel and bloodletting, and led to a brief renewal of the empirical method in herbal medicine.

Modern Era

Traditional herbalism has been officially regarded as a method of alternative medicine in the United States since the Flexner Report of 1910 led to the closing of the eclectic medical schools where botanical medicine was exclusively practiced. In China, Mao Zedong reintroduced Traditional Chinese Medicine, which relied heavily on herbalism, into the health care system in 1949. Since then, schools have been training thousands of practitioners - including Americans - the basics of Chinese Medicines to be used in hospitals. "The Chinese pharmacopeia is 5000 years old and contains substances that are transformed into effective but non-toxic medicines." While Britain in the 1930s was experiencing turbulence over the practice of herbalism, the US was experiencing acts and laws being created to disallow the practice.

"The World Health Organization estimated that 80% of people worldwide rely on herbal medicines for some part of their primary health care. In Germany, about 600 to 700 plant based medicines are available and are prescribed by some 70% of German physicians." South African doctors use herbs to treat many patients, some patients finding the plants more useful than modern medicine previously prescribed to them.

The practice of prescribing treatments and cures to patients requires a legal medical license in the United States of America, and the licensing of these professions occurs on a state level. "There is currently no licensing or certification for herbalists in any state that precludes the rights of anyone to use, dispense, or recommend herbs."(http://www.americanherbalistsguild.com/legal-and-regulatory-faqs)