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The medicinal value of plants was discovered by early men accidentally. Perhaps an animal got sick and ate a certain plant which made it well and this was witnessed by a human. Today, scientists have found out why these plants work.
There is scarcely a plant on earth that man has not tried to use as a medicine as well as a food. Some plants have been found to help stomachaches, to lower fevers, to heal wounds or to take away pain. Such plants contain complicated chemical substances as well as food materials. These chemicals are stored in various parts of plants—roots, stems, leaves, flowers, or fruits. Some plant substances, if eaten by a person, can kill him or make him very ill. Other substances—often the same ones in small amounts—can make a person well. In ancient times, men tried out different plants to see which ones helped cure certain diseases. At first, they may have used plants with a strong odor or bitter taste. Perhaps they thought that those plants with a bad taste or unpleasant smell would drive out the evil spirits believed to cause disease. To this day, many people have the notion that medicine must taste bad if it is to do any good. Early men did not test plants as scientists do today. However, they probably watched animals to see what plants the animals ate, especially when the animals were sick. By trial and error, over the ages, men came to use thousands of plants as remedies for their ills. For example, many American Indian tribes used willow bark to treat rheumatism, or pains in the joints. Just how the Indians came to choose willow bark is not known, but scientists have found that willow bark contains a pain-killing chemical related to one used in aspirin. Men also learned useful remedies from other peoples. When exploring the Gulf of Saint Lawrence in 1536, Jacques Cartier, a famous French navigator, noticed that the Indians nearby were healthy, while his men were ill or dying of a disease called scurvy. By chance he learned that the Indians drank a bitter tea-like concoction everyday. They made this drink by boiling the leaves and bark of the almeda tree, a kind of spruce. Cartier made the drink and persuaded some of the sick men to use it. All who drank it recovered in a week. Today scientists know that scurvy is caused by a lack of vitamin C. Vitamin C is a substance needed for good health. This vitamin and other necessary ones are present in many plants, such as carrots, oranges, wheat—and the almeda. Not all plants tried by primitive people actually cured disease, but many had good effects. Some are still used as medicines today.
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