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This article examines the presence and uses of plants attested in the Chinese medical tradition in the materia medica literature of classical antiquity. It is based on the consultation of the major ancient compilations on materia medica of Chinese medicine and classical antiquity, specifically Bencao Gangmu by Li Shizhen (16th cent.) and De materia medica by Dioscorides (1st cent. A.D.). The article is divided in three major parts: the identification of plants used in the Chinese medical tradition in the medicine of the Mediterranean World in Antiquity; the analysis of the knowledge of these plants and their origin in classical antiquity; a comparison of the uses of these plants in the Bencao Gangmu and De materia medica. It traces the presence of plants of the Chinese medical tradition in Classical antiquity. Although their exact origin was not known, they were reputed at that time to be native to either India or the Black Sea, two areas that correspond to the ending points of the Silk Road. As for their uses in both traditions, they correspond for some plants, whereas they do not for others because either the uses attested in the Chinese tradition were not preserved on the Mediterranean or different uses appeared in the Mediterranean tradition. These differentiated uses hint at both continuities and ruptures, with the latter resulting from the long journey of the plants from the Chinese World to the Mediterranean and, at the same time, attempts aimed to diversify and optimize the applications of non-native medicinal substances.

Ethnopharmacological relevance : Transmission of ethnopharmacological knowledge over a long period of time and across a vast area or between botanically or culturally/scientifically unrelated regions of the world is a fundamental issue in ethnopharmacology, as it traces continuity and transformation(s) of the data to be submitted to analysis for evaluation. In the context of present interest in Eastern medicine (particularly Indian and Chinese), we ask questions about the transmission of knowledge from the East to the Mediterranean. In the first part, we survey available literature on trade between the two areas and, in the second, we present preliminary micro-cases (data, analysis and interpretation) in order to verify the feasibility of a comparative study. Materials and methods Based on the assumption of native areas of origin and/or domestication of plants and one other natural product (musk), we have screened relevant sources (pharmacological literature) in the original language searching for explicit information about Indian and/or Chinese materia medica. We have concentrated our attention on knowledge of the origin of the materia medica under study, their therapeutic applications, the explanations provided for their activity, and the knowledge of the living plants and animals as demonstrated through their representations. Results Relevant data come from the Hippocratic Collection in ancient Greece (5th century B.C.E.) to the Renaissance in the 16th century. The corpus of materia medica and drugs collected in this preliminary study include pepper and myrrh (5th century B.C.E.), ginger (1st century C.E.), a dozen plants and drugs in the period 9th to 13th century (e.g. camphor, clove, galanga, nutmeg), cinnamon (11th century and later), eggplant, banana tree and musk (13th–16th century). Whereas the Eastern origin of such products was known, the exact area was not always. Judging from their representations, the plants and animals producing the drugs studied here were not necessarily known. Compared therapeutic uses of the drugs did not correspond to those in the area of origin, even though some knowledge of such original uses was preserved. Conclusions This study warrants the very possibility of a comparative analysis of different historical pharmacological traditions. It highlights both continuities and innovations in the transmission of information from the East (India and China) to the Mediterranean, suggests interpretations on the processes brought to light and opens the door to a further systematic study that will expand the documentary corpus, collect additional material, and also confirm and refine our interpretations. Such an approach is expected to play a fundamental role in the collection of historical ethnopharmacological data and to be applicable to traditions other than the Eastern and Mediterranean ones.

Ethnopharmacological relevance The relationship between food and medicines has long been investigated and is of crucial importance for the understanding of the development of ethnopharmacological knowledge through time. Hippocrates, considered the Father of Medicine, is credited with an aphorism equating food and medicine. No inquiry has been performed, however, into the collection of texts attributed to Hippocrates and, going beyond, into this statement, which is generally accepted without further examination. A clarification is much needed as the question of the relationship between food and medicines as potent substances are crucial to ethnopharmacology. Materials and methods To verify the validity (if not the authenticity) of the theory on the identity of food and medicine attributed to Hippocrates, we digitized the whole collection of texts ascribed to Hippocrates in the original Greek language (the so-called Hippocratic Collection), which date back from the age of Hippocrates (late 5th century and 4th century BCE) to a more recent time (2nd century CE). On this basis, we extracted and databased all the information related to remedial therapy, that is, their materia medica (vegetable, animal and mineral) and their use(s). We identified both the plant species according to modern up-to-date taxonomy and the medical conditions as precisely as possible. We then screened these plants to discover what their uses were and, going backward in time, we examined (when possible) their native distribution, domestication, possible introduction (in the case of non-native species) and cultivation to determine whether these species had been known for a long time and might have been the object of long-term observation as both foodstuffs and medicines. Results Tabulated data from the Hippocratic Collection revealed that 40% of the remedies in the Collection are made out of only 44 plants. Of this group, 33 species (=75% of the group) were also used for nutritional purposes in Antiquity. Domestication history of these species indicates that humans have long been in contact with them, something that the medical uses of these species confirm, as they are multiple and finely distinguished. A pilot analysis of archeological remains of medicines confirms that textual evidence corresponds to physical evidence, that is, to the practice of medicine. As a consequence, textual information can be accepted as reflecting actual practice. Conclusions Although the pseudo-aphorism according to which food are medicines and medicines are food does not appear as such in the Hippocratic Collection, it aptly expresses a fundamental element of the Hippocratic approach to therapeutics, without being, however, a creation of neither Hippocrates nor his followers and the physicians who practiced a form of medicine in the way of Hippocrates. A vast majority of the core group of plant species used for the preparation of medicines were also consumed as foodstuff. Knowledge and use of these plants probably resulted from a long co-existence in the same environment and also from multiple experiences of trial and error over millennia, whose results accumulated over time and contributed to the formation of the Mediterranean medical tradition.

Ethnopharmacological relevance Ruta is a genus of Rutaceae family. It features mainly shrubby plants, native to the Mediterranean region and present in traditional medicine of this region since Antiquity. The three most diffused species Ruta chalepensis L., Ruta graveolens L., and Ruta montana (L.) L., are morphologically poorly differentiated and were probably interchangeably used during Antiquity. Aim of the study Hippocratic and contemporary medical applications of the Ruta genus in the Mediterranean were compared to check if they result from a continuity of use from the ancient times to nowadays. Results Ruta spp. was mainly employed in medical preparations by Hippocratic physicians as an abortifacient and emmenagogue. In addition to gynaecological conditions, in several treatises of the Corpus Hippocraticum Ruta spp. were also recommended as a specific remedy against pulmonary diseases. Ruta spp. leaves and also roots and seeds, were administered for internal use by Hippocratic physicians after having been soaked in wine or mixed with honey or its derivatives. Contemporary traditional uses of Ruta spp. have been assessed in detail in the whole Mediterranean area. Conclusion Nowadays, Ruta spp. is used to treat different conditions but, as a general rule, the external uses are preferred as the toxicity of the plant is widely acknowledged.