ABSTRACT
In ancient texts dealing with plants and other materia medica, taste is the sense that is mentioned most because it was the best at determining pharmacological and nutritive qualities. Pharmacological and botanical writers created complex systems of taste classification; in practice, however, they insisted most on sweet and bitter tastes. Botanical and pharmacological writers in the ancient world regularly described the taste of plants and other medical substances. Often, they did so by comparing the taste of a plant with that of another, presumably better known. Taste was one of the best ways to identify a plant and its powers. Several senses had a role to play in determining the qualities of natural substances, but taste and smell were the most important. Plants had inherent qualities, but habitat also contributed to qualities, and hence to taste. Indeed, the soil gave plants their food, and therefore contributed to their nutritive and medicinal powers, which manifested themselves through taste.
