Natural or herbal remedies often came from observations that certain plants have healing properties. Traditionally, foods and herbs were either consumed directly or prepared as an infusion by steeping them in water. There is evidence of traditional Chinese medicine from as early as 300 BCE.
These early remedies were complex mixtures of many compounds, and early practitioners would not have known which ingredients made them biologically active. However, advances in scientific techniques during the industrial revolution and into the twentieth century allowed researchers to isolate individual compounds and mass produce them. It was during this period that the first single-ingredient medicines, such as morphine and penicillin, were produced.
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