Fill in the Blanks 199-testOnline version 199-test by Farhad Key 1 ointments prescribed remedies recorded clay in far apothecaries translated survives A herbal is a book of plants , describing their appearance , their properties and how they may be used for preparing and medicines . The medical use of plants is on fragments of papyrus and tablets from ancient Egypt , Samaria and China that date back 5 , 000 years but document traditions older still . Over 700 herbal were detailed in the Papyrus Ebers , an Egyptian text written 1500 BC . Around 65 BC , a Greek physician called Dioscorides wrote a herbal that was into Latin and Arabic . Known as ? De materia medica' , it became the most influential work on medicinal plants in both Christian and Islamic worlds until the late 17th century . An illustrated manuscript copy of the text made in Constantinople ( modern - day Istanbul ) from the sixth century . The first printed herbals date from the dawn of European printing in the 1480s . They provided valuable information for , whose job it was to make the pills and potions by physicians .