Some salient features of 'Kitabul-Hashaish' with special reference to the manuscript preserved in Khuda Baksh O.P. Library, Patna.

ABSTRACT

The contributions of Dioscorides in the field of materia medica and pharmacology are unparalleled in the history of medicine. This great botanist of the 1st century A.D. made personal observations of the specific properties of drugs and presented them through illustrations for the first time. Almost all the physician authors of Unani system of medicine from Galen to Azam Khan have quoted Dioscorides. Kitabul-Hashaish was rendered into English and arabic and published repeatedly in the West. The book has great value and is quoted widely due to its authenticity. This unique work needs to be edited critically and afterwards translated into Urdu and other languages for the benefit of the present day students and scholars.