The first known herbal, De Materia Medica, was written by a Greek military physician Dioscorides. De Materia Medica is one of the most influential herbal books in history. It remained the primary source of plant names and terminology. It was republished well into the sixteenth century.
was a celebrated Greek physician, botanist, pharmacologist and surgeon. He travelled with the armies of the Roman Emperor Nero.
ANCIENT GREECE (and Rome) - 4th century BC - 4th century AD
Early botanical texts were written by Aristotle, Hippocrates, Crateuas, Dioscorides (De materia medica), Pliny the Elder (Historia naturalis), and others.
Classical pharmacologist, artist, and physician to Mithradates VI, king of Pontus (120–63 BC). Crateuas' drawings are the earliest known botanical illustrations. His work on pharmacology was the first to illustrate the plants described; he also classified the plants and explained their medicinal use.
