De Herbal

Herbal
Herbal is a collection of descriptions of plant put together for medicinal purposes. Expressed for elaborately, it is a book containing the names and decriptions of plants, usually with information on their vitues and in their medicinal, tonic, culinary, toxic, hallucinatioty aromatic, or magical powder, and the legends associated with them. The herbal may also classify the plants it describes, may give recipes for herbal extracts, tinctures, or potions, and sometimees include mineral and animal medicaments in addition to those obtaianed from plants. Herbal were often illustrated to assisst plants identification.

Herbal were among the first literature produced in Ancient Egypt, China, India, and Europe as the medical wisdom of the day accumulaated by herbalists, apothecaries and physicians. Herbals were also among the first books to be printed in both China and Europe. In Western Europe herbals flourished for two centuries fllowing the invention of moveable type.

In the late 17th century, the rise of modern chemistry, toxicology and pharmacology reduced the medicinal value of the classical herbal. As reference manuals for botanical study and plants identification herbals were supplanted by Floras-systematic accounts of the plants found growing in a particular region, with scientifically accurate botanical descriptions, classification, and illustrations. Herbals have seen a modest revival in the western world since the last decades of the 20th century, as herbaliam and related disciplines (such as homeopathy and aromatherapy) became popular forms of complementary and alternative medicine.