How Alchemy influenced Herbal Medicine

[Paul Ferguson]

"Long before pharmaceutical texts, herbals—illustrated books describing plants and their medicinal uses—were essential guides for healers. Works such as Apuleius Barbarus’s Herbarium Apulei and Dioscorides De Materia Medica cataloged centuries of herbal knowledge. Alchemists drew heavily from these texts, experimenting with extractions, distillations, and fermentations to create more concentrated remedies. These processes gave rise to elixirs, tinctures, and essences—predecessors of modern herbal extracts still used today."

https://worldherblibrary.org/from-herbal...-medicine/