A Research on the Present Uses in Eastern Mediterranean of Medicinal Plants in Materia Medica of Dioscorides

Pedanius Dioskorides, born c. 40 AD in Anavarza, was a Greek physician, pharmacist, botanist. Dioskorides, trained in medicine in Alexandria and in Athens, appointed as a military physician in Anavarza. He was the author of the Materia Medica, that is one of the world's oldest systematical medical and pharmaceutical books. In the Materia Medica (5 volumes) includes information such as botanical characteristics, and forms the purposes of medical use, side effects, dosage of more than 600 herbal, 35 animal and 100 mineral drugs. This work was primarily written in Greek, it was translated into Latin in later centuries, the Syriac and the Arabic language. In this study, is compared the drugs in the Materia Medica of Dioskorides with the present uses in the eastern Mediterranean region. It is determined, 131 medicinal plant species have been used in the eastern Mediterranean region today, they are also used for medical purposes and which of 61 species have been used same purposed with the Materia Medica, other 70 species have been used for different purposes. In this paper, was used the book of “The Herbal of Dioscorides the Greek” translated by T.A. Osbaldeston and scientist group