Herbal Logistics in the Middle and New Ages

Abstract

Plants that are or are thought to be a source of healing have been produced and consumed by human beings for thousands of years. Human beings have transferred their experiences about medicinal plants from generation to generation, as well as from geography to geography. Thanks to this transfer, a body of knowledge about where to obtain medicinal plants and how to use them has been created and made available to humanity. Trade routes have been used since the past to deliver medicinal plants from where they are produced to users. Since the past, human beings have generally sought cures for the diseases they suffer from in plants. In both traditional and modern medicine, plants have helped the healing hands with their healing properties. Some plants, which are particularly prominent in being a source of healing, have been defined as medicinal plants. Although the fame of medicinal plants has become widespread throughout the world, limiting factors such as climate and soil structure have not allowed these plants to be grown everywhere. This situation required the use of trade routes to deliver these plants to the points where they were needed but could not be produced. While the Silk and Spice routes, which were the most important trade routes of the Middle Ages, came to the fore in the medicinal plant trade, geographical discoveries made it possible to gain new resource points, new routes and even new medicinal plants, especially in the New Age. While the logistical problems encountered in obtaining the needed medicinal plants from the right place at the right time and delivering them to the users were expertly solved by the experienced merchants, sailors and caravan managers of the time, the experiences gained also form the basis for the universal realities of today's medical logistics concept.