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China / Tibet : Two folios from an illustrated materia medica or pharmacopoeia. Probably from Surmang Monastery in Kham, today part of Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province. 19th century

China / Tibet : Two folios from an illustrated materia medica or pharmacopoeia. Probably from Surmang Monastery in Kham, today part of Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province. 19th century

Materia medica (English: medical material/substance) is a Latin medical term for the body of collected knowledge about the therapeutic properties of any substance used for healing (i.e., medicines).

The term derives from the title of a work by the Ancient Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides in the 1st century CE, De materia medica, 'On Medical Material'. The term materia medica was used from the period of the Roman Empire until the 20th century, but has now been generally replaced in medical education contexts by the term pharmacology.

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