Pedanius Dioscorides, "the father of pharmacognosy", was a Greek physician, pharmacologist, botanist, and author of De materia medica, a 5-volume Greek encyclopedia about herbal medicine and related medicinal substances, that was widely read for more than 1,500 years. For almost two millennia Dioscorides was regarded as the most prominent writer on plants and plant drugs.
Dioscorides receives a mandrake root, an illumination from the 6th century (c. 512) Greek Juliana Anicia Codex
Blackberry from the 6th-century Vienna Dioscurides manuscript
Cover of an early printed version of De materia medica, Lyon, 1554
Portrait of an old man; perhaps the physician Dioscorides, whose name is cut in front of it. Antique paste
Pharmacognosy is the study of crude drugs obtained from medicinal plants, animals, fungi, and other natural sources. The American Society of Pharmacognosy defines pharmacognosy as "the study of the physical, chemical, biochemical, and biological properties of drugs, drug substances, or potential drugs or drug substances of natural origin as well as the search for new drugs from natural sources".
Dioscorides’ Materia Medica, c. 1334 copy in Arabic, describes medicinal features of various plants.
The carotenoids in primrose produce bright red, yellow and orange shades.
