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India
Early Trade in Medicines around the Mediterranean Basin
In 1500 BCE trade routes for drugs were already well established between the Mediterranean and the Levant [105]. Inevitably, information and new discoveries also changed hands and huge similarities are evident in records of the drugs used by major civilisations around this time including Mesopotamia, Egypt and India [105].
Shamanic Traditions
Originating in Eurasia in around 4000BCE, Shamanic traditions soon spread widely to areas such as the Americas, the Pacific and India [105].
Shamanism is often characterised by the use of hallucinogenic plants as part of ritual, a means of accessing "other worlds", or simply as a social activity [105].
Typically, hallucinogenic plants would allow a shaman to contact spirits, both good and bad, in order to question, communicate or negotiate [105].
Sometimes spirits would even be asked to help diagnose an affliction or advise on suitable remedies [105].
Chinese Hibiscus
Similarities in plant-medicine use across diverse geographical regions
Similarities in the ways specific plants are used across a diverse range of cultures is evidence of primitive human-plant relationships [105].
Hibiscus rosa-sinensis has been used as a hot-water extract to treat menstrual problems and to regulate fertitily amongst primitive peoples in all of the following regions [105]: