Plants & Civilizations

As in the Past , even to-day, medical knowledge is passed on by word of from generation to generation.

Earlier communications between the tribes were poor, remedies were probably discovered independently many times in several parts of the world.

Sumerian drawings of opium poppy capsules from 2500 B.C. suggest a good knowledge of medicinal plants.

Important record -series of tablets curved with the code of Hammurabi, under the direction of the king of Babylon around 1770 B.C.

Clay tabletsCollection of vegetal formulaeSumero-Akkadian pharmacopoeia : 40 plants

ORIGIN & MIGRATION • In the old Eurasian world: 3 Major Centres of Origin & Domestication:

1-Yang Tse Kiang valley-China. 2- Indus Valley-Pakistan. 3-Fertile Crescent-Middle East

• Plants & Animals - diffused to the W and to the E. from here.

-Yang Tse Kiang valley-China.

2-Indus Valley-Pakistan.

3-Fertile Crescent-Middle East

• Hammurabi 6th Babylonian king (1728-1686 BC) -"the favorite of the gods", in front of the throne of the Sun god Shamash.

• Laws-inscribed in Old Babylonian on tall stela of black diorite.

• Discovered in December 1901 in Susa, Elam, which is now Khuzistan.

Hippocrates of Chios (Kos) BC 460-377

Father of Medicine

Pedanios Dioscorides of Anazarba (Adana)

1st century ADFather of Pharmacists

Galenus of Pergamon (Bergama)AD 130-200

Father of PhysiciansTheophrastus of Lesbos (Midilli)

BC 371-287 Father of Botany

MEDICINE WAS BORN IN THIS LAND

Temple of Aesculapius in Pergamon (Bergama)

God of Medicine

Pedanius Dioscorides of Anazarbos De medicinali materia libri

• Seidenstrassen – “silk roads” – is a term created in 1877 by geologist Ferdinand Paul Wilhelm von Richthofen, the roads were of economic importance, used for 1000’s of years before the invention of silk.

• Probably animal migration routes were linking the springs & pastures, long before the emergence of Man & the establishment of agriculture, around 11000 BC.

One feature that certainly helped in the self-diffusion of many plants + animals was - land continuum from Yang Tse Kiang valley to West Asia, through areas less desert than they are nowadays.

• Land roads-most ancient in Central Asia:  -northern one, the oldest (cock probably naturally migrated).

-more southern routes constituted the diffusion roads for flowers, fruit-trees & other animals.

-For silk, since the Han dynasty, historically linked China to the Imperial Rome + main centre of the west.

• Central Asia: Anau – one of the oldest oases going back nearly 7000 years to 4500 BC Kara Kum desert (within the borders of present day Turkmenistan +Uzbekistan & Iran + Afghanistan).

• Amu Darya (Oxus) tributaries, in Bactria (northern Afghanistan & southern Uzbekistan) & in Margiana (the Murghab delta of E- Turkmenistan)- a peaceful economic & cultural complexes. (Sir Darya)

• Northern nomads-settled down all along the route.

• All as intermediate stops on these roads since very ancient times :

• Namazga, Kelleli, Kalta Minor, • Gonur Tepe, • Togolok in Margiana, • the vast Merv oasis, • the large complex oases of Niya in the Tarim

Basin.

Kara Kum desert

• Other itinerary was the sea route : the most recent one dates back to the 1st century of our era.

• Also, jade of Central Asia arrived in China very early.

Silk Road- animals strode, plants & precious products were transported-lapis lazuli, the mines of which were in Sar-e-Sang-Badakhshan, Afghanistan, trade dated to 3000 BC.

How did plants travel? How were they introduced?

• People carried seeds-Cereals, Walnut, Pistachio, Apricot, Peach, Bulb plants like Narcissus.

• Apple & Citrus, reproduction unpredictable; young tree or grafts taken.

• Diffusion thus occurred step by step-linked to the acquisition of grafting techniques (this skill was known since ancient times in China and Mesopotamia).

• Course plants diffused with birds, rodents; fabrics, clothes, animal furs held seeds.

• Introductions with tributes: the ambassador’s gifts-new plant or animal offered to

the emperor of China-had a garden with many animals+exotic & prestigious plants (Botanical Garden in Afghanistan-all kinds of Tulips-Baburname).

• Rich Fergana Valley: 751, General Ziyad ibn Salih – leader Khurasan army of Abû Muslim-defeated Chinese.

• Prisoners included Chinese silk-weavers + paper-workers-used bark of Broussonetia papyrifera – a Moraceae + other things for paper.

• Introductions in the Mediterranean before Greco-Roman times

• Ancient contacts between E & W- presence of silk on Egyptian mummies, inlays of lapis lazuli on the mask of Tutankhamun etc.

• Variety of people in Egypt: Persians, Babylonians, Phoenicians, Cilicians,

Greeks, Jews, all actively trading.

• Far East connected with Cent. Asia connected with S & W Asia + the Medit.

• Very ancient introductions include: cock, camel, horse, rose, apple, pomegranate, pistachio, black mulberry, walnut, pepper rice among the main ones.

• Rose• Rose originated in Central Asia.

• Arrived in China - in the Medit. only dog rose – Rosa canina – was known.

• Flower of beauty & fragrance- always carefully cultivated, one of the first domesticated, diffused ornamentals.

• Damascus rose:

Very ancient variety-beautiful

& fragrant flower was

distilled technique

developed in Syria in the 8th

century, to get the attar of

roses.

Sweet apple  Malus pumila  

• Apple trees bearing edible fruits probably first occurred in Central or Western Asia, in very ancient times.

• Tien Shan Mountains- huge forests of Malus pumila, whose fruit can be the size of a child’s head.

Origins & Migration -Sweet Apple

• Only apple native to the forests of temperate Europe is Malus sylvestris, a small & very acid fruit gives acid drink  pommata.

• Apple tree lasts the lifetime of its master- lifespan slightly less than 50 -100 years.

 Pistacia vera • Pistachio, from Central Asia-widely diffused,

from Northern Syria to CA : wild pistachio forests in Kyrgyzstan, slightly below walnut forests, close to Osh.

• Arabic term fustuk was borrowed from Persian, which provides evidence for its Central Asian origin.

Black mulberry  Morus nigra

Originated in Central Asia.

Introduced in Babylon where musukânu was highly cultivated for fruit & excellent wood used in carpentry.

• Unknown to Theophrastus, but Dioscorides (AD 40-90) knew it & named it  moron.

• Not related to the cultivation of silkworm cocoons, as per Yeh-lu Ch’u Ts’ai who accompanied Genghis Khan on his expedition to Persia in 1219-1224.

• Walnut  Juglans regia• Walnut native to Central Asia-still beautiful

forests in Kyrgyzstan, on the mountains before arriving to Osh.

• Arrived in Persia early, was introduced in Lebanon and parts of Palestine (Gilead) very early.

• Theophrastus & Dioscorides claimed -introduced from Persia.

Root Crops

• Vavilov considers Central Asia as the primary centre of origin for onion & garlic.

• Workers who built the Egyptian pyramids may have been fed with radishes & onions.

• 44 Cultivated alliums, onion (Allium cepa) & garlic (A. sativum), originated wild in the large paleo-Iranian area.

• Garlic was known in predynastic Egypt, long before 3000 BC.

• Onion was popular food in Ancient Egypt -eaten by pyramid builders since the first dynasties in 3200-2780 BC.

Pomegranate,  Punica granatum • Origin- Tropical Asia.

• Grown in the hanging gardens of Babylon.

• Mentioned in many passages of the Bible, in THE HOLY QURAN.

• OLD beliefs referring to femininity & fertility.

• Greek mythology-Aphrodite planted the first pomegranate.

• Pluto or Hades, god of hell, offered pomegranate to the beautiful Persephone.

• Romans knew the fruit - brought it to Rome, hence its Latin then scientific name  Punica.

Peach Prunus persica

• Fruit of the Silk Road & the fruit of Harpocrates, god of silence.

• Native to China -domesticated there between 3300 & 2500 BC.

• Introduced in Persia around 2nd or 1st. century BC, hence its name  persica.

 

7th century-Tang court received golden peaches from Samarkand, “as large as goose eggs-golden colour”-arrived in perfect condition through Gobi Desert to Ch’ang-an, probably packed in snow as was the case of grape & watermelon.

Apricot,  Prunus armeniaca• Tien Shan area comprises wild species.

• Native to Central Asia or China.

• History -2200 BC -China -mythical discovery by the emperor Yu (2205 - 2198 BC).

• Orchards –described in 406 - 250 BC.

• Importance of apricot in China -related to toponymy : about 11 names of Chinese cities include the word xing, which means apricot (preserved by salting & smoking).

• Central Asia-apricot naturalised in Samarkand & Armenia, no wild apricots in Armenia - simply the route by which apricots arrived to the Medit. & Central Europe.

Carrot Daucus carota• Origin:- Hindu Kush-Himalayan region (Kashmir-

Afghanistan) -centre of diversity for western carrot -Anatolia (Turkey).

• Theophrastus describes 2 varieties of daukon, both are medicines : 1 has black root in Patrai-in Achaia; 1 saffron-coloured.

Taro,  Colocasia antiquorum

• Compared with banana.• Origin:- Oceania.

• First found in Egypt –grown in flooded areas, origin of the latin name.

• Could have come to Egypt from India?

Introductions from the Mediterranean to Central Asia and the Far East

• Plants in the Far East coming from the Mediterranean :

• grape vine, • narcissus, • garden pea, • henna.

  Grapes: Vitis vinifera

• 2 subspecies : sylvestris of Southern + Central Europe, NW Africa, W Turkey, and Israel;

• -caucasia found in Bessarabia, S Russia, Armenia, Caucasia, Anatolia, Iran, Turkestan, & Kashmir .

• Grown very early in the oases of Central Asia in Bronze Age times.

• Oases of Niya in the Tarim Basin of the late Bronze Age had vineyards.

Gonur Tepe populations in Turkmenistan together with barley (Hordeum vulgare ssp. hexatistichum), wheat (Triticum aestivum) and pulse, lentils, chickpeas, grass peas & peas.

Safflower Carthamus tinctorius• Native to the E. Medit.-a dye plant. Widely cultivated as natural dye plant(China).

White mulberry  Morus alba

• Tall Chinese tree diffused together with  Bombyx  that produces silk (Archaeology reveals raw silk made in Syria in the 4th century AD).

• Used for feeding silkworms-yields fleshy white fruit.

Rhubarb Rheum rhaponticum

• A vivacious plant up to - 1 m. tall.

• Native to NW China & E Tibet.

• Andalusian scholar Ibn Beitar-Treatise on medicinal plants in the 14th century- long article on rhubarb by Ibn Djami– there may be doubts about the presence & use of rhubarb, unless as a dry trade item.

• Rhubarb root was a medicinal product known in western countries for its diuretic & laxative properties.

TEA (Origin China)-Spread to Europe.Russians spread the culture of tea & samovar (end of

19th century established in Turkey).

Basils (Ocimum spp.)

• Basils small bushes, with different leaf sizes & strong varied aromas.

• In India,  tulâsi  is devoted to Shiva.

• First known by the Persians-diffused by the Arabs in the Medit., in Greece.

• basilikon is the plant of Christ.

• in Portugal, a pot of basil is offered.

• in some parts of Spain, such as Aragon, brides carry a protective bouquet in their vest.

• in southern Italy & North Africa, belief - preserves from bad influences.

Sweet marjoram  Majorana hortensis

• Origin Central Asia (perennial plant) .

• Evidence in the miniatures of famous book Taqwîm es-Siha by Ibn Butlân (Baghdad, 1066), translated into Latin in the 13th century– one of the most famous ones being  Codex Vindobonensis  in Vienna.

• Always represented as a small shrub in a flowerpot or in a box needs careful cultivation.

• Mistaken for the wild species Origanum vulgare, native to the Medit. & rich in phenol.

• Sweet marjoram has a less pungent flavour & aroma than oregano.

Jasmine   Jasminum sp.• From tropical Asia & China.

• Arabs borrowed it from the Persians with its name yâsmîn-borrowed from India.

• Jasmine & rose, 2 queens of flower perfumes.

• Over 200 species-most common used in perfumery: J. grandiflorum-“Spanish jasmine”, 

J. officinale, native to Iran, &  J. odoratissimum.

Eggplant  Solanum melongena

• Fruit-vegetable native to tropical Asia.

• First domesticated in India-diffused westward with the Muslim expansion.

• Persian term bademjan (patlican), was passed on to Arabs & Turks

 

Spinach  Spinacia oleracea • Central Asia (Persia, Turkestan, Afghanistan)-known by the

Arabs in Persia-they took its name ispânay, became isfanaj in Arabic, Ispanak.

Citron  Citrus medica• Origin probably- India, domesticated as lemon -

arrived in the Medit. much later.

• Only citrus known in the Antique Middle East-introduced in Greece around 300 BC by the soldiers of Alexander.

Theophrastus named it « apple of the Medians ». Romans named it « malum citreum », later shortened to « citreum »-name finally set in the 17th century by Linnaeus as « citrus ».

• Bitter orange, Seville orange,  Citrus aurantium• Originally from South China- early

domesticated in India, confirming its Sanskrit name nâgaranga.

• Persians borrowed the fruit with its name, which became nâranj.

• Bitter fruit eaten only when cooked with honey or sugar ––the flower has a superb perfume,was widely used when distillation became popular in the 18th century.

• Almost every house in North Africa has orange perfume, the homemade azahar, for sprinkling friends during feasts or flavouring the many tiny cakes.

Lemon  Citrus limonium

• From East India and South China-arrived in the Mediterranean.

• Fruit keeps well due to thicker skin; seeds hold their germination power for a long time; the plant is easily grafted.

• Arabs knew it in Persia- borrowed its Persian name  lîmûn.

• Ideal for making soft drinks –lemonade, used in cookery.

• Al-Tignarî - one of the first to mention the cultivation of lîmûn with citron utruj and bitter orange  nâranj.

• Citrus sinensis- Sweet orange arrived in the Medit. very late- brought from China by the Portuguese, therefore named portogal,  bortogal  in the Middle East.

• Later mandarins arrived -accurately named Citrus deliciosus.

• Photo 1. A shadek tree -French Guyana

• Photo 2 Shadek, big green mandarina of the tropics and small strongly perfumed gombawa

Hollyhock Althaea rosea

• Origin China -diffused through silk roads, how?

• Arrived in the Western Medit. -end of Middle Ages ; flower with 3 different coloured varieties – white, red , black.

•  guli khaira - Persian name, one of the most depicted on Persian miniatures with white & red flower varieties.

Weeping willow  Salix babylonica

• Linnaeus named it according to the legend of the weeping Jews, slaves in Babylon.

• Native to China.

• Medit.- many species of Salix.

• Bark rich in salicin- component of aspirin.

• Tree grown in many humid places of the Near East, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, Palestine + Western Medit.

Henna Lawsonia inermis

• Henna-native to Southwest Asia, name Indo-Aryan origin.

• Present in the Antiquity of Egypt in 2 forms : perfume from the flowers & red dye from the leaves.

Map of diffusion of the henna in time and space

• Mummy - hair, feet + hands dyed with pouker, the Egyptian name for henna.

• Dye was well-known in Greek & Roman Antiquity.

• Islamic societies have used it as a tint, especially in marriage rituals (7th century).

• Cherished by Prophet Muhammad (SAW).

• henna gave its name to Ligustrum vulgare : aleña in Spain.

• India + probably SE Asia, people knew the ancient use of hand dying before the arrival of henna-it competed with indigenous dye plants but, as a valuable tint- widely introduced & even entered the Chinese, Vietnamese + Indian pharmacopoeia.

 Garden pea Pisum sativum

• Garden pea is native to SW Asia-grown in the 7th. millennium BC in the Fertile Crescent.

• Diffused to India first -reached China around 1000 CE by way of the Himalayas & Tibet.

Date Phoenix dactylifera• Domesticated in Mesopotamia & NW

India.

• Tree imported from Persia to Canton, & the fruit was named “Persian jujube” due to its resemblance to this Chinese fruit.

Fig  Ficus carica• Native to W Asia- cultivated very early in the

Jordan valley in the 9th millennium BC, arrived in Egypt together with grape vine in the 3rd millennium.

• Unknown when it was imported into China, but in the 9th century, fig was among the many fruits eaten by the Chinese. 

Narcissus tazetta  Narcissus spp. • Native to the Eastern Medit.-

introduced in China from Anatolia probably through the silk roads.

• Traveller Tuan Ch’eng-Shih from Tang times (618-907) spoke of narcissus naming it nai-gi, probably from the Persian term nârgis.

• Poets sang it, painters painted and drew it, and potters made precious goblets to grow it.

• Forced cultivation of bulbs provides flowers in winter.

• Traditional New Year flower in China, Vietnam , Iran.

• Fragrance symbolises the purity of heart &soul-straight & narrow leaves represent integrity.

• Expansion of Muslims has played a key part in the introduction of many plants : originating from the Far East through roads of CA , white mulberry & much later, sweet orange, hollyhock, weeping willow, tea , rhubarb, sweet marjoram, basils.

• Arabs found spinach in CA & in the South, plants that had previously been imported from India : sugar cane, eggplant, jasmine, Seville orange, lemon.

• They borrowed them all with their Persian names.

• Medit. plants were introduced in China, probably through the silk road : narcissus tazetta and garden pea.

• Arabs & Persians brought henna to their settlements in Southern China-essential to their social & religious cultures + date & fig – 2 basic fruits of their traditional food.