Integrating traditional Greco‐Arab and Islamic diet and herbal medicines in research and clinical practice

Early Muslims utilized many plants and animal products mentioned in the Holy Quran and in the Hadith of the Prophet for health promotion, for example, dates, black seeds, olive leaf and olive oil, honey, and camel milk. Arab-Islamic medicine laid down the principles for the development of Greco- Arab and Islamic medicine that was developed in the golden age of the Arab-Islamic civilization (seventh to fifteenth century). The establishment of evidence-based medicine and pharmacy in the Arab- Islamic world laid down the principles of clinical investigation and, later on, for the development of modern Western medicine and pharmacy. Based on the recommendations of Rhazes and Avicenna, Greco-Arab and Islamic medicine treated patients through a scheme starting with physiotherapy and diet, and if this failed, drugs were used. The most commonly used medicinal plants in the Mediterranean region are discussed briefly in this chapter.