Herbal medicine is one of the most ancient forms of remedial treatment, evolving with humanity, as we learned through trial and error, and by watching animals. Almost every major culture has at one time used herbs as its main or only source of medicine.

As long ago as 3000 B.C. the ancient Egyptians compiled lists of herbs and their properties. Later, the ancient Greeks followed suit. It was the Romans who brought herbs to northern Europe, and there herbalism was nurtured and molded by other cultural influences, including the Arabs, who invaded the Iberian Peninsula.

In the Middle Ages, herbal lore was often created around superstition, but underlying this was a basic comprehension of the body and the effects that different herbs had upon it. When the reasons why herbs worked on a medical basis were unclear, a philosophy or didactic myth would be woven to explain them. It was believed that people tended to embody one of four dispositions associated with bodily humors, being either cheerful, sluggish, hot tempered, or gloomy, depending on which of the humors predominated. Herbs were thought to possess their own characteristic temperaments, and were therefore prescribed according to their individual characteristics to correct imbalances.