Mankind has struggled against various illnesses and ailments throughout history. The use of plans for healing and beauty is as old as ancient civilizations as evidenced by preserved documents, monuments, and gravesites. These ancient herbal and plant-based medicinal discoveries were largely instinctive and experimental. In time, such experiential plant use became founded in explicit facts. Up until the 16th century, plants had been the source of treatment.
The most famous writer on plant drugs was Dioscorides, who wrote the "De Materia Medica", which was translated many times and continued to be updated until the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
Dioscorides’ most appreciated domestic plants included the willow, camomile, garlic, onion, marshmallow, ivy, nettle, sage, common centaury, coriander, parsley, and something called sea onion.
Due to the increasing contradictions of usage, side effects and questions on the effectiveness of modern synthetic drugs, there has been an increase in interest towards natural, homeopathic solutions.