Pedanius Dioscorides

Pedanius Dioscorides
Dioscorides receives a mandrake root, an illumination from the 6th century (c. 512) Greek Juliana Anicia Codex
Born	c. 40 AD[1] Anazarbus, Cilicia, Asia Minor
Died	c. 90 AD
Other names	Dioscurides
Occupation(s)	Army physician, pharmacologist, botanist
Known for	De Materia Medica

Pedanius Dioscorides (‹See Tfd›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.^[2][3]