Herbal Medicine in Yemen pdf

Traditional medicine in Yemen—and similarly in all other Islamic countries—is based on three main sources: classical Arabic medicine that has itsfoundations in Greek medical theory, the Prophet’s medicine (at-tibb al-nabawi), and local pre-lslamic traditions. Its practitioners—namely drug-gists and healers—have studied the classical Arabic sources and the worksof al-tibb al-nabawi. They have further acquired knowledge through oraltransmission. Religious and magical rituals are employed side by side withmateria medica, i.e. the substances ofnatural—plant, animal, or mineral—origin that are used for their medicinal properties. The different approach-es to healing should not necessarily be understood as being takenindependently, but rather in combination. Apart from a few drugs of animaland mineral origin, it is first and foremost Yemen’s rich and diverse vegeta-tion that has been the source oftraditional remedies and that has resultedin an enormous variety of plant-based medicines.l Only a little plant mate-rial was imported from Iran and India. Jacques Fleurentin has determinedthat 54% of Yemeni medicinal plants are mentioned in the work on mate-ria medica by the famous Andalusian pharmacologist and botanist Ibnal-Baytأ¤r (d. 1248). But Fleurentin also stresses that 36% were not de-scribed by any of the classical authorities—a fact that emphasizes theoriginality ofYemeni herbal medicine. The specific remedies that becamepart and parcel of traditional Yemeni medicine result from the experienceof local practitioners who had observed the remedies’ effectiveness. Besides the health professionals, other people with well-founded knowl-edge of plants—for instance farmers—acquired experience with the med-ical properties of herbs.4 Apart from oral tradition, Yemeni indigenousknowledge of phytotherapy is reflected in works on materia medica by