Page "Herbalism" Paragraph 12

The earliest known Greek herbals were those of Diocles of Carystus, written during the 3rd century B. C, and one by Krateuas from the 1st century B. C.

Only a few fragments of these works have survived intact, but from what remains scholars have noted that there is a large amount of overlap with the Egyptian herbals.

Greek and Roman medicinal practices, as preserved in the writings of Hippocrates ( e. g. De herbis et curis ) and-especially-Galen ( e. g. Therapeutics ), provided the pattern for later western medicine.

Sometime between 50 and 68 A. D., a Greek physician known as Pedanius Dioscorides wrote Περὶ ὕλης ἰατρικῆς ( commonly known by its latin title De Materia Medica ), a compendium of more than 600 plants, 35 animal products, and ninety minerals.

De Materia Medica remained the authoritative reference of herbalism into the 17th century.

Similarly important for herbalists and botanists of later centuries was Theophrastus ' Historia Plantarum, written in the fourth century BC, which was the first systematization of the botanical world.