Herbs have been used throughout written history, and probably much longer. They were depicted on cave paintings in France, dated between 13,000 B.C. and 25,000 B.C. It is speculated that early humans probably discovered myriad uses for wild plants through trial and error. It even makes sense that civilization began about the time that humans first began cultivating plants.

Anthropologists believe that people began making healing ointments out of fragrant plants combined with olive oil and sesame oil as early as 7000 B.C. By the 28th century B.C., Egyptians were writing about herbs. The Sumerians followed with a written herbal record around 2500 B.C. By 700 B.C., bustling Greek merchants were tracking their heavy trade in marjoram, thyme, and sage in the markets of Athens. About 300 years later, Hippocrates used many plants to treat diseases, which led him to become known as the father of medicine. He catalogued about 400 herbs in common use in his day.

Greeks and others continued to study the medicinal uses of plants over the next several centuries. Aristotle requested that Alexander the Great learn how other cultures were utilizing the aloe plant. Alexander sent cuttings of new plant varieties to friends as he traveled the world. Herbs are also mentioned repeatedly throughout both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.

The European colonists who settled North America in the 1600s and 1700s carried seeds from their most useful plants to the New World. Their limited capacity for luggage is a testament to how important these herbs were to colonists that they carried them aboard ships for transport to their new homes. The herbs they introduced here included plantain, mint, lavender, parsley, pot marigold (also known as calendula), roses, dandelion, chamomile, thyme, and yarrow.

Both safety and convenience prompted the settlers to plant their herb gardens just steps outside their front doors. They continued their study of herbs by learning more from the Native Americans they encountered here. The Arawak introduced Columbus and his crew to cayenne on the Canary islands. Cherokees showed the new settlers how to use goldenrod to treat fevers, and the Sioux showed frontier settlers how to use echinacea to treat wounds and snakebites.

Herbs were extremely important in the times before clinics or hospitals. Doctors weren't available to everyone then, either, and medications as we know them today were nonexistent. The common people used plant parts for treating different ailments, and dried the most useful herbs to store and use during the winter months. There was little formal research other than trial and error, with the results passed on by word of mouth.

Thomas Jefferson was also a gardener who kept thorough records of his gardens at Monticello. Some of the herbs grown there were lemon balm, sage, mint, thyme, chamomile, rosemary, and lavender.

By the 20th century, the introduction of synthetic medicine spurred a decline in the use of herbs as health care treatments. Interest did not resume on a large scale until the self-sufficiency movement of the 1960s. Today, our culture is experiencing a resurgence of interest in everything natural, including herbal medicine.

An herb is a plant that is used for its medicinal properties, flavor, or scent. Herbs are used for both culinary and medicinal purposes -- sometimes even spiritual ones. Their leaves are often the favored part of the plant, but herbal medicine also avails itself of herbs' roots, seeds, flowers, berries, and bark.

The definition of a medicinal herb is more expansive than that of a culinary herb. Medicinal herbs may be shrubs or other woody plants, but culinary herbs are limited to the leaves only of non-woody plants. Any portion of the plant may be considered herbs in medicinal and spiritual use, including the plants' fruits and vegetables.

In cooking, herbs are narrowly defined as the leafy green parts of plants. The seeds, berries, bark, root, and fruit are classified as spices, rather than herbs. All of these are distinguished from vegetables by usage. That is, herbs and spices are used in small amounts and are intended to provide food with flavor, rather than substance.