Near the end of the 9th century, British herbalists were familiar with nearly 500 plants with medicinal properties and uses, which were related to myths and superstitions, but never the less those herbs were grown and used.  However, during the Middle Ages it was the Christian monasteries that began applying the medicinal and therapeutic knowledge of plants.  At that time and up to that point in history, there were many other cultures and religions that had prospered from the knowledge and uses of plants for these purposes.  Herbs and other plants were used within the ayurvedic system of the Indian cultures, the Chinese use of plants as medicine to help maintain the balance of yin and yang, and the spiritual healing powers of the North American Indians. 

History proves that the idea of apothecary gardening was not a newly proposed idea.  We have obtained much information and prospered from many of these aged findings.  For example, the use of amphetamines from the Chinese culture, the production of steroids from the West African wild yam, hydrocortisone from false unicorn root, and aspirin from plants such as meadowsweet or the black willow represent just a tiny amount of knowledge gained from the use of plants therapeutically.  The extensive exploration and traveling going on at that time helped to lead to the blending of cultures and their practices with plants.  There was a major fascination in discovering other plants and trading those plants between individuals, which sparked a bit of a business in the trading of plants and the knowledge of apothecary and botany.  Books began to be published around the 15th, 16th, and 17th Centuries that marked the “golden age of herbals” and started to build a slow but continually growing bridge between formal medicine and the practice of herbalism.  However, problems arose regarding belief versus actual results that are still dealt with today. 

At that time there were many diseases in which little information was known.  Yet, formal medicine was not able to present many cures so many turned to apothecary to help deal with, cure and even prevent those and many other diseases.  The Native American Indians were very knowledgeable in maintaining good health along with nature, but when the white man introduced them to many new diseases they too had a very hard time.  So the whites and the Indians began to share and combine their knowledge of plants and their uses. 

In 1543 the first apothecary garden known was created at Pisa University, then in 1621 at Oxford University, the first apothecary garden in England was planted.  Then, by the end of the 16th Century there were five apothecary gardens in Europe, and by the mid-20th century several hundreds more.  At that time the gardens were associated with the medical schools and universities for the purpose of training students in growing plants to use for making medicines.  Yet, since that time the purpose of teaching has declined and has been replaced with the interests of companies or individuals with personal, herbal health care in mind.