The use of Chinese herbal drugs in Islamic medicine.
10.1016/S2095-4964(15)60205-9
- Author:
Mojtaba HEYADRI
1
;
Mohammad Hashem HASHEMPUR
2
;
Mohammad Hosein AYATI
3
;
Detlev QUINTERN
4
;
Majid NIMROUZI
5
;
Mojtaba HEYADRI
1
Author Information
1. Research Center for Traditional Medicine and History of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
2. Department of Traditional Medicine, Fasa University of Medical Sciences, Fasa, Iran.
3. Department of Traditional Medicine, School of Traditional Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
4. Department of History of Science, Fatih Sultan Mehmet Vakif University, Istanbul, Turkey.
5. Department of Traditional Persian Medicine, School of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- MeSH:
Drugs, Chinese Herbal;
therapeutic use;
Humans;
Islam
- From:
Journal of Integrative Medicine
2015;13(6):363-367
- CountryChina
- Language:English
-
Abstract:
This paper investigates some of the ways that Chinese medicine has been transferred to the Western world and to Islamic territories. During the Golden Age of Islam (8th to 13th century CE), the herbal drug trade promoted significant commercial and scientific exchange between China and the Muslim world. Chinese herbal drugs have been described by medieval Muslim medical scholars such as Tabari (870 CE), Rhazes (925 CE), Haly Abbas (982 CE), Avicenna (1037 CE) and Jurjani (1137 CE). The term al-sin (the Arabic word for China) is used 46 times in Avicenna's Canon of Medicine in reference to herbal drugs imported from China. Cinnamon (dar sini; "Chinese herb"), wild ginger (asaron), rhubarb (rivand-e sini), nutmeg (basbasa), incense tree wood (ood), cubeb (kababe) and sandalwood (sandal) were the most frequently mentioned Chinese herbs in Islamic medical books. There are also multiple similarities between the clinical uses of these herbs in both medical systems. It appears that Chinese herbal drugs were a major component of the exchange of goods and knowledge between China and the Islamic and later to the Western world amid this era.
