Login

Introduction Medicinal plants also called medicinal herbs have been discovered and used in traditional medicine practices since, prehistoric times. Plant synthesis hundreds of chemical compounds for functions including defence against insects, fungi, diseases and herbivorous mammals. Prehistoric times, plants including many now used as culinary herbs and spices, have been used as medicines, not necessarily effectively, from prehistoric times. Spices have been used partly to counter food spoilage bacteria, especially in hot climates and especially in meat dishes which spoil more readily. Ancient times, in ancient sumeria, hundreds of medicinal plants including myrrh and opium are listed on clay tablets. The ancient Egyptian Ebers Papyrus lists over 800 plant medicines such as aloe, cannabis, castorbean, garlic, juniper and mandrake. From ancient times to the present, Ayurvedic medicine as documented in the Atharva veda, the Rig veda and the Sushruta samhita has used hundreds used hundreds of pharmacologically active herbs and spices such as turmeric, which contain curcumin