In the written record, the study of
herbs dates back over 5000 year to the Sumerians who described well established
medicinal used for such plant as laurel caraway and thyme. The Egyptians of
1000 B.C are known to have used garlic, opium, castor oil, coriander mint,
indigo and other herbs for medicine and the Old Testament also mentions herb
use and cultivating including mandrake, vetch, caraway, wheat, barely and rye
(James, 1990).
The first Chinese herb book, dating
from about 2700 B.C, lists 365 medicinal plants and their uses including ma-
Huang, the shrub that introduced the drug ephedrine to modern medicine (Le
strange, 1977).
In Nigeria, the use of medicinal
plants dates back to the times of our ancestors in their attempt to treat
disease and relieve physical sufferings (Abayomi, 1993). According to legend
(Abayomi, 1993), the first man to practice the act of healing using medicinal
plant in the Yoruba speaking part of Nigeria was Orunmila. These methods of
using plant medicinally must have come to the early man in the most
unscientific way. Since them, the
knowledge of medicinal plants has continued to be useful in the production of
drugs, food, spice, perfume and preparation of surgical dressings