Herbs have been used from earliest recorded history as aids to the health and well-being of man. In the old cultures of the Middle East, Egypt and Arabia, as well as Greece and Rome, herbs were used in daily living in a variety of ways. They were used, for instance, to purify and sweeten the unhygienic environment in the great cities, where cleanliness of body was a luxury available to only a few, where sewage and drainage ran through the streets, and food was often rank or even well and truly “off”. With their antiseptic properties, their pleasant perfumes and powerful stores of volatile oils and minerals, herbs were of great value, and were as readily available to the peasants and common people as to the princes and the wealthy and powerful. Since they were easy to collect and prepare, every household had at hand simple remedies for illness, ways to provide a more interesting and wholesome diet, and even dyes for their cloth and aids to their crop-growing and farming.

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