There is documentation from 1st and 2nd centuries that have
references to a wide range of spices. Ayurvedic medicine during
that period, also promoted the use of spices like cloves and
cardamom wrapped in betel-leaves to be chewed after meals to
increase salivation and to help digestion. Today, a derivative of
this particular form is known as “paan” in India.
Many spices were imported
to ancient Greece from
neighbouring
countries.
Many of these ingredients
were used for cooking.
Caraway and poppy seeds
for bread, fennel for vinegar
sauces, coriander as a
condiment in food and wine,
and mint as a flavouring in
meat sauces.
Hippocrates (460-377 BC) wrote a book about 400 herbs that
were used for medicinal purposes – many of which are used to
this day in herbal medicines. Theophrastus (often referred to as
the ‘father of botany’), nearly 500 years later, wrote 2 books
describing 600 spices and herbs. De Materia Medica, an
exhaustive and systematic treatise on remedies based on herbs
and spices, was written by Discorides, a Greek physician, in the
1st century. The book was used, both in the East and West, for
over 1500 years.
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