Natures medicinal treasure trove

For thousands of years humans have made use of plants for medicinal purposes, writes Dr Ruth Hadfield PhD. The earliest written evidence of medicinal plant use was found on a 5000 year old Sumerian clay slab and included recipes for drug preparation from 250 plants, including the poppy, henbane and mandrake.1 Today we continue to rely heavily on medicines from nature, as much of the modern-day pharmaceutical arsenal is based on natural products from plants, animals or microorganisms.