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
.
