SEW YCRK 



JOTANiCAl 



TORREYA 



Vol. 37 March-April, 1937 No. 2 



A review of some medicinal plants 



Part 1* 

 S. C. Bausor 



A compilation of even a short list of plants is a cryptic 

 history of the accumulation of empyric knowledge by primitive 

 and civilized peoples throughout the world. The circumstances 

 leading to the original use of plants in combating disease can 

 only be conjectured. It seems quite natural that primitive man 

 should have known the virtues of the flora surrounding him, 

 since it provided him with sustenance. He learned by trial 

 and error to distinguish the food plants from the poisonous 

 ones and that the latter produced symptoms like disease. The 

 next progressive step was the application of these "disease- 

 producing" plants as a cure for disease itself. A similar principle 

 is used today in immunology by serum treatment and in der- 

 matology in the treatment of allergies. 



History is fragmentary with respect to the first account 

 of medicinal plants. The earliest extant work is thought to be 

 that of a certain Dioscorides which is as recent as the begin- 

 ning of the Christian era. This work was used as an authority 

 through the Middle Ages. During the Renaissance physicians 

 attempted to describe with more accuracy the plants of Europe 

 having known or reputed medicinal value, in order to clarify 

 the confusion which had grown up around them as a result of 

 trying to recognize in them duplicates of the plants of the East 

 described by Dioscorides. The work of these herbalists^ led 

 gradually to a broader view of the nature of plants in general 

 and of medicinal plants in particular. 



* Part 2 of this paper, describing medicinal plants of our local flora, will 

 appear in the next number of Torreya. 

 1 Agnes Arbor, "Herbals," 1912. 



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