Among all sciences,
medicine was the most advanced considering
the fact that the Atharva Veda, (about 1500 BC) one of the four
ancient scriptures of India, mentions certain herbs with curative powers. Several ancient texts on physiology identified factors as those which determined good or ill health. The traditional Indian
medicine Ayurveda, focused on longevity and prescribed several remedies for the same. Gold, silver, mercury, garlic and honey are described as having specific curative powers in the vast treasury of India's pharmacopoeia. medical texts of ancient India. Some of these have subsequently been credited with the same curative powers by modern scientists.
Charaka, the great Ayurvedic physician of the 1st Century AD, had written
Charaka Samhita, the first scientific medical text. Charaka's work consisted of eight chapters devoted to pharmacology, diet, treatment of major diseases like fever, diarrhoea, consumption, leprosy and tumour among others. He also wrote on such specialised subjects as pathology, embryology and anatomy.