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The Arabic culture in AD 500-1300 helped in gaining and preserving knowledge of
herbals used in the classical Greek and Roman period.
Further east, in India, the 7th century saw a golden age of medicine. Thousands of students studied Ayurveda at universities, especially at
Nalanda. Scholars recorded the medical achievements of the time, with advances in the development of hospitals, maternity homes, planting of medicinal herb gardens etc.
On the other hand , the Mongo rulers banned the use of certain toxic plants such as aconite (Aconitum
napellus), but their decree may have held an element of self-preservation, given aconite's alternative use as an arrow poison.
Shamanistic Medicine included medical treatment for the physical needs of the patient like putting salves and compresses on wounds, boiling up decoctions and barks for internal treatment, stimulating sweat for fevers etc.
The ancient civilizations of Central and South America- Maya, Aztec and Inca all had herbal traditions with a profound understanding of local herbalists plants.
One-account talks about Incas taking local herbalists from what is now known as Bolivia back to their capital Cuzco in Peru because of the herbalists' great capabilities, which reputedly included growing penicillin on green banana skins.
Around the same time monks in other parts of the world were using
exotic herbs such as opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) and marijuana
(Cannabis sativa) as painkillers and anaesthetics.
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