An Introduction to the History of Pharmacology in Iran

Herbal medicine, as an important part of traditional medicine, has been developed byfamous scholars. “De Materia Medica” the valuable work of Dioscorides (1st CE) wastranslated into Arabic by Stephan Basil under the title of Hayula al-Teb. This work wasfurther elaborated by several Moslem scholars and finally made available to the public inthe 3rd Century CE. Indigenous pharmaceutical sciences were pioneered by Ebn al-Beitarthe outstanding Muslim botanist and is the author of “Jame le Mofradat”. Other scholarswho have contributed chapters to, or authored separate treatises on materia medica orpharmaceutical sciences were; Tabari (Ferdous al-Hekmat), Rhazes (Al-Hawi and Al-Mansouri), Heravi (Al-Abnieh), Avicenna (Al-Qanoon), Biruni (Al-Saidane), Jorjani(Zakhire), Shapor Sahl (an erudite from the School of Jondishapour and author ofGharabadin: the oldest Pharmacopoeia), Haji Zain al-Attar (Ekhtiarat-e-Badii), HakimMomen (Tohfe) and Aghili Khorasani (Makhzan al-Advie).