Materia medica in the context of "Apothecaries"

De materia medica (Latin name for the Greek work Περὶ ὕλης ἰατρικῆς, Peri hulēs iatrikēs, both meaning "On Medical Material") is a pharmacopoeia of medicinal plants and the medicines that can be obtained from them. The five-volume work was written between 50 and 70 CE by Pedanius Dioscorides, a Greek physician in the Roman army. It was widely read for more than 1,500 years until supplanted by revised herbals in the Renaissance, making it one of the longest-lasting of all natural history and pharmacology books.

The work describes many drugs known to be effective, including aconite, aloes, colocynth, colchicum, henbane, opium and squill. In total, about 600 plants are covered, along with some animals and mineral substances, and around 1000 medicines made from them.

Pedanius Dioscorides (Ancient Greek: Πεδάνιος Διοσκουρίδης, Pedánios Dioskourídēs; c. 40–90 AD), "the father of pharmacognosy", was a Greek physician, pharmacologist, botanist, and author of De materia medica (in the original Ancient Greek: Περὶ ὕλης ἰατρικῆς, Peri hulēs iatrikēs, both meaning "On Medical Material") , a 5-volume Greek encyclopedic pharmacopeia on herbal medicine and related medicinal substances, that was widely read for more than 1,500 years. For almost two millennia Dioscorides was regarded as the most prominent writer on plants and plant drugs.

Heraclides of Tarentum (Ancient Greek: Ἡρακλείδης ὁ Ταραντῖνος; fl. 3rd – 2nd century BC), was an Ancient Greek physician of the Empiric school who wrote commentaries on the works of Hippocrates. He came from Tarentum, was a pupil of Mantias, and probably lived in the 3rd or 2nd century BC, somewhat later than Apollonius Empiricus and Glaucias. He belonged to the Empiric school, and wrote some works on Materia medica, which are very frequently quoted by Galen, but of which only a few fragments remain. Galen speaks of him in high terms of praise, saying that he was an author who could be entirely depended upon, as he wrote in his works only what he had himself found from his own experience to be correct. He was also one of the first persons who wrote a commentary on all the works in the Hippocratic Corpus. He is several times quoted by Caelius Aurelianus and other ancient authors.

Aeschrion (Gr. Αισχρίων) of Pergamon was a physician in the 2nd century AD. He was one of Galen's tutors, who says that he belonged to the sect of the Empirici, and that he had a great knowledge of pharmacy and materia medica. Aeschrion was the inventor of a celebrated superstitious remedy for the bite of a mad dog, of which the most important ingredient was powdered crawfish. He directs these crawfish to be caught at a time when the sun and moon are in a particular relative position, and for them to be baked alive. This remedy is mentioned with approbation by Galen and Oribasius.