Some marine drugs used in traditional medicine with special reference to avicenna's canon of medicine

ABSTRACT

Traditional uses of some marine, animal, plant and mineral drugs, mentioned in Greco-Arab system of medicine, have been described. "Canon of Medicine" [Avicenna, 980-1037 A.D.] provides the numerous traditional unique uses of the indigenous drugs from the sea. This review paper covers the literal translation of the 24 drugs of sea origin directly from the Arabic source for the first time. The drugs have been presented with English, Arabic and scientific names followed by important traditional uses from the Greco-Arab medical literature