Background:
De Materia Medica written by Pedanios Dioscorides (1 century CE) has shaped European and Mediterranean herbal medicine to a large extent.
Pedanius Dioscorides, early 1st century A.D., author of
De Materia Medica, who travelled throughout the Roman Empire with Nero's army, collected samples of local medicinal herbs and plants, hypothesized that orchids influence sexuality.
On to Pedanius Dioscorides, a Greek physician, pharmacologist and botanist as well as the author of
De Materia Medica - a five-volume encyclopaedia about herbal medicine and related medicinal substances that was widely read for more than 1,500 years.
The book includes a foreword by an ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, color photographs, lists of covered plants included in
De Materia Medica and other early sources, the shade-tolerance ratings of covered trees, species suitable for an urban meadow, key characteristics of major plant families, and a glossary.
Almost as soon as it was written,
De materia medica began to be excerpted, condensed, rearranged, and translated into Latin, Arabic, and European vernaculars.
Also, it has been argued that original text of the
De materia medica was not originally illustrated.
(16) SAN MARTIN, A.: Estudios
de materia medica fisica, Ensayo de sistematizacion de las especialidades terapeuticas aereoterapia, hidroterapia, electroterapia y atmiatrica".
121-23), requires knowledge of Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, Greek, Latin, Syriac, and Persian, as well as historical medical literature, from Dioskurides'
De materia medica to Maimonides' glossary of drug names, to mention only the more easily accessible references (cf.