This discipline uses medicinal plants, particularly specific extracts, to treat certain conditions. The extracts of medicinal plants are considered to be effective thanks to a mixture of active ingredients instead of a single constituent.
Phytotherapy is the oldest form of medicine and is currently the most used in the world. Many of the most ancient texts such as the Ebers Papyrus (first evidence of the use of aloe vera), and several ancient Chinese documents essentially consist of lists of medicinal herbs and their uses. Hippocrates, Dioscorides, Galen and Avicenna were herbalists.
The same Conventional Medicine, until the end of the ’30s, was largely based on medicinal plants and the same botany was part of the academic curriculum until the mid-twentieth century. At the end of the ’30s, the introduction of new drugs such as antibiotics and corticosteroids, as well as advances in surgical techniques, marked a new era for Western medicine, tending to eclipse disciplines such as Phytotherapy. It’s important to point out that about 25% of the contemporary drugs still derive from plants.
