Even before the emergence of humans, plants were used as medicine, for already apes ingested specific herbs when ailing. Botanical remedies used two million years ago and their astounding revival today attest to experience rather than authority: if a cure proves successful, it will be applied again and again.

Based upon archeological evidence, we presume that plants as well as mineral and animal substances were used by prehistorical human societies, and even today the most primitive societies still apply these various remedies. The study of plants, the aim of ethnobotany, is enlightening in this regard. What we now know about various forms of writing reveals that such recipes go back to the earliest times. For instance, in Egypt, prescriptions were found in the Ebers Papyrus of 1555 B.C. and later; similarly, it appears that written recipes were found among all ancient cultures.

However, let us concentrate here on Greek pharmacology, which dominated academic medicine in the West well into the eighteenth or even nineteenth centuries, while the other ancient culture, the Roman, which left an indelible imprint upon Christian and Muslim civilizations, failed to contribute anything substantial to our field. The Jews, in turn, who in the Middle Ages provided many leading physicians, relied on Muslim learning; on the other hand, the Jewish religion insisted that the patient should leave his destiny to the decree of the Lord, and some Hebrews even believed that doctors would have no share in eternal bliss.