Herbs have been used to flavor food and to make medicines since prehistoric times. Herbs are small flowering plants, and there are hundreds of different kinds, each with its own special properties. Usually it is the leaves that are valued, but it can be the flowers or the stem. Some, such as basil and oregano, are edible and used in small quantities to flavor food. Others, like feverfew are valued more for their medicinal qualities. Many of today's medicines came originally from plants, including aspirin (from willow trees), morphine (from the seeds of the opium poppy), and quinine (from the bark of the cinchona tree of South America). An extract of the rosy periwinkle, called vincristine, is one of the drugs used against leukemia, a childhood cancer. Egyptian pyramid builders ate garlic because they thought it would give them strength. Rosemary gets its name from the Latin rosmarinus which means sea dew. Bay leaves were used to crown poets and heroes in Ancient Rome. The Ancient Greeks called basil "King of Herbs". The Latin name for sage is Salvia, which means healthy, and sage is thought to have healing qualities. Mint and the spice cinnamon keep moths away from clothes.
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