Herbal Medicine in the Middle East

Avicenna’s “Canon of Medicine” is a cornerstone of this tradition, describing hundreds of plants and their specific effects on the body’s humors—blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. This theory, inherited from Greek medicine and refined by Islamic scholars, formed the intellectual backbone of herbal practice for centuries. Even today, many herbalists in Iran, Syria, and Lebanon refer to the Canon as a trusted reference, blending its ancient wisdom with modern pharmacological insights.