ABSTRACT
Preparing a cultural history of medicinal plants is a challenging task, especially when attempting worldwide coverage. Each region has its own centuries-old, continuously changing, traditions. This is exemplified in Table 12.1, which shows the geographical origin of medicinal plants currently included in the European and the German pharmacopoeias. The latter includes a particularly large number of medicinal plants. It is of particular note in these pharmacopoeias that they still rely very heavily on European (including Mediterranean) plant resources, which are part of the tradition of Europe, and on the plants introduced by the various Arabic scholarly works.
