A Brief History of Herbal Medicine in Europe

In this video, we look at a brief history of herbal medicine in Europe. Notable herbalists in Europe were Galen, physician to Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, Hippocrates, Aristotle, Pliny the Elder, Dioscorides, a Greek who worked as a surgeon in the Roman army, Nicholas Culpepper and John Gerard. They all documented their work and findings which were translated and distributed throughout the continent and beyond with the help of the printing press. Prior to this the herbal methods were passed down from generation to generation and herbal medicine was on the decline with herbalists being labelled as quacks. A few centuries later and once again herbal medicine is on the increase as more and more people are relying less on conventional prescribed drugs and moving ‘back to basics’ in the natural way.