What is Medicinal Plants

The number of plants used for treatments has been steadily increasing since ancient times. There were around 250 herbal drugs used during the Mesopotamian civilization. During the time of the Greeks, 60 medicinal plants were known. During the Arab-Persian civilization, this number increased to about 4,000. At the beginning of the 19th century, the number of known medicinal plants reached 13,000. These herbal drugs are used to treat many diseases, from diabetes to cancer. Back pain and related symptoms rank as the second most common affliction of humankind. One of the proposed methods to control and treat back pain symptoms is traditional folk medicine. This chapter examines the recent ethnobotanical studies to form a compilation on medicinal plants used as Turkish herbal medicine in the treatment of back pain and their local names, parts, and usage forms.