Herbal Medicine in Bilad el-Sham

This overview will focus on the improvement and present day status of herbal remedy in the Middle Eastern region and in specific on a place covering massive parts of the present-day Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Israel and Jordan, used to be known as Bilad el-Sham by the Arab rulers and scholars of that time. Recent research investigated the medical uses of herbal resources in medieval and Ottoman al-Sham (the Levant) and revealed that there were 286 medicinal components in use as traditional compounds. These research concerned meticulous surveying of a large range of historic sources spanning 1100 years, which include traditional literature, travelogues, archives, the Genizah, Ottoman Levant and other sources. The region beneath study served as the geographic foundation of the majority of clinical substances, only a minority of the materials was imported. In fact, the al-Sham region was an independent source of manufacturing and marketing of medicinal components at the time of the medieval and Ottoman period.

Medicinal plants incorporate healing bioactive substances which have proven to be treasured as foremost or supplemental remedies when cautiously applied. Until previous century most medicines have been derived directly from plants or animals. Despite the growing use of artificial drugs, herbal pharmaceuticals have continued as the treatment of choice for different illnesses in societies across the world. Many local treatments used across the Middle East region have never been correct explored, researched, evaluated or exploited, in contrast to, for example, Chinese medicine, which is further away from Europe in theory, culture and practice. Medicinal herbs are magnificent resources for a range of pharmaceutical compounds and urgent measures are required to defend these plant species from their natural destruction and disappearance. Indeed, there is a actual risk of indigenous Arab medicinal practices and expertise disappearing altogether, further weakening traditional Arab tradition and developing more insecurity, as well as forsaking a aid of inestimable economic and health care importance.