Diet and plant medicines

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Scholarship flourished in Classical Greece in which the natural world was still considered man’s dominant partner. The major contribution of Hippocrates was to place a scientific framework of diagnosis and treatment around western medicine. He was one of the Asclepiadeans, a group of physicians named after Asclepius. From him the Hippocratic Oath, a code of conduct for the medical profession, is still honored by doctors throughout the world. He tried to eliminate the idea of disease as being punishment from the gods and considered food, occupation and climate important factors in disease. He wrote ‘Our natures are the physicians of our diseases’, and that patients should help their bodies to heal themselves by diet and plant medicines. Aristotle was one of the world’s greatest scholars with interests ranging over the entire natural world including ethics and metaphysics. He championed accurate observation and disciplined theorizing. He organized biological science and wrote many plant descriptions. Philosophy, botany and healing were closely linked; it was a golden age for enquiring minds. Aristotle’s friend and pupil, Theophrastus (372-286BC), inherited Aristotle’s school and garden. Starting with his master’s notes and augmented by observation from his own travels and the reports of other colleagues, Theophrastus made the first western attempt to establish a scientific classification of plants.