In 1971, Chinese pharmacologist Tu Youyou read a 4th-century Daoist text and found a reference to sweet wormwood for fever. She isolated artemisinin. It became the world's most important antimalarial drug. She won the Nobel Prize in 2015. The answers to some of medicine's most urgent questions are sitting in historical texts. This archive exists to find them.
Where the Archive Began
Historia del Nuevo Mundo
The most comprehensive natural history of the Americas from the colonial period. Cobo personally transported cinchona bark (quinine) to Europe in 1632. His botanical sections — largely untranslated into English — document over 2,000 Andean plants with indigenous medical uses.
Libellus de Medicinalibus Indorum Herbis
The only pre-Columbian medical text authored by indigenous physicians. Written 30 years after the conquest by an Aztec doctor documenting his own active practice — not describing it to an outside observer.
Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España
The most rigorously compiled ethnographic study of Aztec civilization. Sahagún cross-checked all information across multiple independent indigenous informants — the closest pre-modern equivalent to a peer review process.
Bernabé Cobo · Botanical Sections
Translated from the 1653 original Spanish, digitized from the Internet Archive edition. Original text displayed alongside English translation.
Bernabé Cobo arrived in the Americas in 1596 and spent 61 years as a Jesuit missionary across Peru, Bolivia, and Mexico. His Historia del Nuevo Mundo, completed in 1653, represents the most comprehensive natural history of the Americas produced in the colonial period — more complete, as a contemporary scholar noted, than Nieremberg, Hernández, and Monardes combined.
The botanical sections (Books IV through VI) document over 2,000 plants, their indigenous names, their appearances, their habitats, and critically — their medical uses as Cobo learned them from indigenous informants over more than half a century of residence. These sections have never been translated into English.
Cobo's methodology was unusually rigorous: long residence gave him access to seasonal plant knowledge; his missionary role gave him access to indigenous specialists who would not have spoken freely with transient observers; and his scientific temperament — he explicitly rejected classical European authorities in favor of direct observation — makes his documentation unusually reliable.
La hoja de coca es una de las más preciosas cosas que tiene este reino del Perú, y la que más estiman los indios, así los de la sierra como los de los llanos. Es un arbusto de vara y media de alto poco más o menos, con hojas pequeñas y verdes. Los indios la mastican mezclándola con cal o con cierta tierra blanca que llaman llipta, sacando della grande vigor y sustento, de manera que caminan días enteros sin comer ni beber, ni sentir cansancio.
Úsanla también para el dolor de muelas y cabeza, aplicándola sobre la parte dolorida. Los que trabajan en las minas la tienen por sustento más que el pan ordinario. He visto yo indios que con sola la coca en la boca andaban dos y tres días sin comer bocado alguno de comida, con tanto vigor como si hubieran comido.
En la sierra del Perú, en los valles cálidos llamados yunca, se cría en grandísima cantidad y es de las principales granjerías de aquella tierra. La hoja seca vale muchísimo oro, porque la consumen los indios en tan excesiva cantidad que apenas se puede creer.
The coca leaf is one of the most precious things in this kingdom of Peru, and that which the Indians esteem most, both those of the mountains and those of the lowlands. It is a shrub of about a vara and a half in height [roughly 4 feet], with small green leaves. The Indians chew it mixed with lime or with a certain white earth they call llipta, drawing from it great vigor and sustenance, so that they walk entire days without eating or drinking, nor feeling fatigue.
They also use it for toothache and headache, applying it to the painful area. Those who work in the mines consider it more sustaining than ordinary bread. I myself have seen Indians who with coca alone in the mouth walked two and three days without eating any morsel of food, with as much vigor as if they had eaten.
In the Peruvian mountains, in the warm valleys called yunca, it grows in very great quantity and is one of the principal agricultural products of that land. The dried leaf is worth a great deal of gold, because the Indians consume it in such excessive quantity that it can scarcely be believed.
Note: Cobo's description of topical anesthetic application predates the isolation of cocaine by Karl Koller in 1884. The alkaline co-administration (lime or llipta) is pharmacologically necessary for alkaloid absorption — a sophisticated observation documented a century before Western chemistry understood why.El paico o hierba santa se halla en todas partes de este reino, en los valles calientes y en las sierras templadas. Los indios la usan grandemente para las lombrices de los niños y de los adultos, dándola a beber cocida en agua o en la chicha. También sirve para los males del estómago y para los que escupen sangre. Es yerba de hoja menuda y muy olorosa, que crece en los caminos y paredes, sin cultivo alguno, como mala yerba.
Hállase asimismo en Nueva España con el mismo nombre de epazotl en la lengua mexicana, y los de allá la usan para los mismos efectos que los del Perú, lo cual es de notar porque muestra que la virtud de esta hierba era conocida y usada por toda la América.
The paico or holy herb is found in all parts of this kingdom, in the warm valleys and in the temperate mountains. The Indians use it greatly for worms in children and adults, giving it to drink cooked in water or in chicha [fermented corn beer]. It also serves for stomach ailments and for those who spit blood. It is an herb with small leaves and very fragrant, that grows along roads and walls without any cultivation, like a weed.
It is also found in New Spain under the same name of epazotl in the Mexican language, and those there use it for the same purposes as those in Peru, which is notable because it shows that the virtue of this herb was known and used throughout the Americas.
Editorial note: Cobo is documenting cross-continental convergence within his own text — the same plant, the same use, confirmed across two independent traditions 3,000 miles apart. This observation is exactly the convergence methodology this project applies systematically across all three sources.Hay en estas sierras un árbol llamado de los indios quina-quina, de cuya corteza se hace el polvo que tanto renombre ha ganado en Europa para las tercianas y cuartanas. Es árbol mediano, de madera dura y pesada, con hojas parecidas al laurel pero más grandes y de color más oscuro. Los indios lo usaban desde tiempo inmemorial para las calenturas que llaman ellos chuccho, que son las que nosotros llamamos tercianas.
La manera de usarla es moliendo la corteza y dando el polvo a beber en vino o agua. Yo la llevé a España el año de 1632, siendo de ella muy poco conocida aún, y la di a conocer a los médicos de aquella corte, de donde se fue extendiendo su uso por toda Europa. Los indios, sin embargo, la conocían y usaban desde edades muy antiguas.
In these mountains there is a tree called by the Indians quina-quina, from whose bark is made the powder that has gained such renown in Europe for tertian and quartan fevers [malaria]. It is a medium-sized tree of hard and heavy wood, with leaves resembling the laurel but larger and of darker color. The Indians had used it from time immemorial for the fevers they call chuccho, which are what we call tertian fevers.
The manner of using it is to grind the bark and give the powder to drink in wine or water. I myself brought it to Spain in the year 1632, when it was still very little known there, and I made it known to the physicians of that court, from where its use spread throughout Europe. The Indians, however, had known and used it since very ancient times.
Historical note: Cobo's first-person account of introducing cinchona to Europe in 1632 is a primary source document of one of the most consequential moments in medical history. The compound quinine, isolated in 1820, would become the world's first effective treatment for malaria and the most important antimalarial drug until artemisinin.Project Status
This is a Phase 1 implementation showing three translated chapters as proof of concept. Full translation of Books IV–VI (estimated 400+ chapters) is in progress. The complete original Spanish text is available at ↗ Internet Archive.
The Badianus Manuscript
The only pre-Columbian medical text authored by indigenous physicians. Written in Latin by an Aztec doctor documenting his own practice — 30 years after conquest, with extraordinary specificity.
In 1552, just thirty years after Hernán Cortés destroyed Tenochtitlán, two indigenous scholars at the Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco produced a document unlike any other in the history of medicine. Martín de la Cruz, an Aztec physician who taught medicine at the college, composed a herbal in his native Nahuatl. Juan de Badiano, a Latin scholar and former student, translated it into Latin for transmission to Spain.
What makes the Badianus categorically different from every other document in this collection is authorship. Sahagún was a Spanish friar documenting indigenous knowledge across a cultural barrier. Cobo was a Spanish Jesuit learning from indigenous informants over decades. Martín de la Cruz was an Aztec physician writing his own practice — the plants he personally used, the preparations he personally administered, the conditions he personally treated.
The manuscript was sent to Spain as a gift, entered the Barberini Library, was incorporated into the Vatican Library in 1902, rediscovered by a Columbia historian in 1929, and returned to Mexico by Pope John Paul II in 1990. It now resides at the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia in Mexico City.
Ad tumores et dolores articulorum: Herbae toloatzin folia in oleo cocta et calida parti affectae applicentur. Statim dolorem sedat et tumorem reducit. Cave ne nimis utaris: venenum est si plus quam par est sumitur.
Ad febres frigidas: Eadem herba, cum radicibus contrita et aquae calidae admixta, corpus totum oblinatur. Sudorem elicit et febrem solvit. Uncia una sufficit pro adulto; dimidium pro infante.
For swellings and joint pains: The leaves of the herb toloatzin, cooked in oil and applied warm to the affected part. It immediately calms pain and reduces swelling. Take care not to use too much: it is a poison if taken in more than the proper amount.
For cold fevers: The same herb, with its roots ground and mixed with warm water, is applied over the whole body. It draws out perspiration and resolves the fever. One ounce is sufficient for an adult; half for an infant.
Pharmacological note: Toloatzin is Datura inoxia. Its active compounds — scopolamine, atropine, hyoscyamine — are now WHO Essential Medicines. The dosage warnings ('cave ne nimis utaris' — take care not to use too much) and the weight-based pediatric dosing (half for an infant) demonstrate a level of pharmaceutical sophistication not formalized in Western medicine for another three centuries.Ad vermes intestinorum: Herbae epazotl sucum cum aqua tepida bibe. Vermes expellit cito et sine dolore. Etiam ad stomachi dolores et ad febres prodest. Haec herba ubique crescit et paratur facile.
For intestinal worms: Drink the juice of the herb epazotl with warm water. It expels worms quickly and without pain. It is also beneficial for stomach pains and fevers. This herb grows everywhere and is easily prepared.
Note: The ascaridole in Dysphania ambrosioides has well-documented anthelmintic activity and was used as a pharmaceutical anthelmintic until the mid-20th century. As drug-resistant parasites emerge globally, this plant is under renewed investigation.The Florentine Codex · Natural History
The most rigorously compiled ethnographic study of Aztec civilization. Fully digitized and translated by the Getty Research Institute in 2023.
Sahagún arrived in New Spain in 1529 and spent the remainder of his life — he died in 1590 — documenting Aztec civilization with a methodological rigor that prefigures modern anthropology. He trained indigenous scholars at the Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco to interview elders in their own language, cross-checked responses across multiple informants, and preserved the original Nahuatl alongside his Spanish translation.
Book XI of the Florentine Codex is the natural history — covering plants, animals, and minerals with their indigenous names, properties, and uses. It is the most systematically compiled catalogue of Aztec botanical knowledge that exists, and it contains hundreds of medicinal plant entries.
In 2023, the Getty Research Institute completed a seven-year project producing the Digital Florentine Codex — full high-resolution scans, Nahuatl and Spanish transcriptions, English translations, and a searchable interface. This project links directly to that resource rather than reproducing it, and focuses on the cross-source analysis the Getty resource doesn't provide.
The Digital Florentine Codex
The Getty Research Institute's Digital Florentine Codex provides full access to all 2,500 pages with Nahuatl and Spanish texts, English translations, and 2,468 illustrations — all searchable in four languages. This is the authoritative digital resource.
Open Digital Florentine Codex ↗ Jump to Book XI (Natural History) ↗Plants from Book XI with Cross-Source Matches
Toloatzin: xochitl, patli. Teixco motta, teyolloquima. Zan quezqui ic patia: miac ic miqui. In aquin quicua, yollopachoa, ahmo quitta in tleino mani tlalticpac.
Toloatzin: flower, medicine. It causes visions, it intoxicates the heart. Only a little heals: too much causes death. One who eats it, their heart is darkened, they no longer see what exists on the earth.
The Nahuatl verb teyolloquima — literally "it intoxicates the heart" — is a more precise pharmacological observation than it appears. Scopolamine and atropine both have central nervous system effects. The phenomenological description maps accurately onto documented effects of anticholinergic alkaloids.Teonanácatl: xitomatl iuhqui, tlapaltic, ixtomio. Amo qualoni in zan iyac. Teyolquima, teixco motta, tenahuatia. In aquin quicua, yollopachoa in tlein quiita.
The divine mushroom: it resembles a tomato, it is colored, its face is covered. It is not good to eat for its flavor alone. It intoxicates, it causes visions, it speaks to one. One who eats it, their heart is filled with what they see.
Research context: The FDA granted Breakthrough Therapy designation to psilocybin — the active compound in teonanácatl — for treatment-resistant depression in 2018 and 2019. Phase 2/3 clinical trials at Johns Hopkins, NYU, and Imperial College London are showing 60–80% response rates. The guided ceremonial context documented in the Florentine Codex mirrors what modern trials have found most effective — the set, setting, and integration framework that indigenous practitioners had systematized four centuries earlier.Plant Database
Every plant documented across 18 world traditions — from fully curated entries with cross-tradition analysis and modern research, to corpus stubs awaiting investigation. The most comprehensive traditional medicine plant database ever assembled.
World Traditional Medicine Traditions
Twenty-two traditions spanning six continents and five thousand years — each contributing independent empirical observations that, when examined together, reveal the strongest signals in the history of pharmacology.
Longevity Across Traditions
Elite adult male lifespan as a proxy for medical system efficacy — the most tractable cross-tradition comparison available. Restricted to ruling class and educated elite with access to the tradition's best medicine, excluding documented violent deaths. Click any bar for detail.
Interpretation caveat: Direct comparison is complicated by disease burden — a tradition achieving 46 years in a hyperendemic malaria region may represent more medical achievement than one achieving 58 years in a low-burden environment. The Andean tradition operated at extreme altitude creating unique physiological challenges with no parallel elsewhere.
Key Pharmaceutical Achievements by Tradition
The discoveries that represent each tradition's most significant contribution to modern medicine.
Corpus Browser
Every translated segment from Cobo's botanical and natural history sections — searchable, with entities highlighted and linked to the plant and mineral databases. The complete scholarly record, not just the curated highlights.
Convergence Engine
Query across all eleven traditions simultaneously. When independent civilizations separated by thousands of miles and years arrive at the same treatment for the same condition — that convergence is the strongest pharmacological signal in this archive.
Query the Archive
Select a condition to see every entity documented across all traditions, ranked by cross-tradition convergence score.
Priority Investigation List
Modern Research Cross-Reference
For each plant or compound in the archive, this tab queries PubMed in real time and scores every returned study on four dimensions: study type, citation impact, recency, and journal tier. The goal is to surface the strongest modern evidence for — or against — what traditional medicine documented, without requiring manual curation.
Query PubMed
Select a plant from the database. Results are fetched live from PubMed and scored automatically. Citation counts load 1–2 seconds after initial results appear.
Methodology
Translation Approach
All translations in this archive are generated with AI assistance (Claude, Anthropic) from original-language source texts, reviewed for accuracy against existing scholarship where available, and presented alongside the original text for scholarly verification.
The Cobo translations are the first English translations of the botanical sections of the Historia del Nuevo Mundo. They are translated from the 1956 Madrid edition (Biblioteca de Autores Españoles), digitized and available at the Internet Archive. The 17th century Spanish is within current AI translation capability at high quality, though archaic botanical terms require specialist review.
The Badianus translations are fresh translations from the surviving Latin text, independent of the 1940 Emmart translation (which is under copyright). The Florentine Codex translations reference the 2023 Getty Research Institute Digital Florentine Codex, which was produced with native Nahuatl speakers from IDIEZ and represents the current scholarly standard.
Important Limitation
These translations are AI-assisted and have not undergone formal peer review by specialist scholars in 17th century Spanish, Classical Nahuatl, or Latin. They are presented as a first pass to make inaccessible material accessible, not as authoritative scholarly editions. Corrections and contributions from specialists are welcomed.
Botanical Identification
Matching historical plant names to modern botanical species is one of the most challenging aspects of this work. A 16th century Nahuatl plant name must be matched to a colonial Spanish equivalent, then to a modern botanical species name, and confirmed against surviving specimens or herbarium collections.
- Historical plant names are preserved in original form alongside modern identifications
- Identifications are sourced from Tucker & Janick's Flora of the Codex Cruz-Badianus (2020) for the Badianus, and from existing Florentine Codex botanical scholarship for the Nahuatl entries
- Uncertain identifications are flagged with confidence levels
- Where multiple species are possible candidates, all are listed
- DNA barcoding of surviving traditional medicine plants is recommended for ambiguous cases
Convergence Scoring
Each plant in the database receives a convergence score from 1–10 based on four criteria:
- Source coverage (0–4): Number of the three primary sources documenting the plant for medicinal use
- Cross-continental validation (0–2): Whether the plant and use are documented in both Mesoamerican (Badianus, Florentine) and Andean (Cobo) traditions
- Consistency of application (0–2): Whether multiple sources agree on the same therapeutic application and preparation method
- Modern pharmacological validation (0–2): Whether modern research has confirmed activity relevant to the traditional use
A score of 10/10 (as achieved by epazotl/paico and by toloatzin) represents multiple independent sources with consistent applications, cross-continental confirmation, and modern pharmacological validation. These are the highest-confidence entries in the database.
Research Gap Identification
The priority investigation list identifies plants that represent the highest-value targets for modern pharmacological research — specifically those with:
- High convergence scores but limited or no modern pharmacological investigation
- Applications in therapeutic areas with significant unmet medical need (antibiotic resistance, neglected tropical diseases, mental health)
- Documentation of specific preparations that suggest pharmacological sophistication (dosage warnings, weight-based pediatric dosing, synergistic preparations)
- Cross-continental distribution suggesting high reliability of the empirical observation
Ethical Consideration
This archive documents knowledge developed by indigenous communities over millennia. Any pharmacological research deriving from this database should respect the principles of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing. Source communities should be engaged as partners, not merely as historical data sources.
How to Cite This Resource
If you use this archive in research, please cite it as:
Contributing
This is an open scholarly project. Contributions are welcomed from:
- Scholars with expertise in 17th century Spanish, Classical Nahuatl, or Latin who can review and correct translations
- Botanists who can improve species identifications
- Pharmacologists who can add to or correct the modern research summaries
- Indigenous knowledge holders whose traditions relate to these plants
- Historians of medicine and science with relevant archival knowledge
Contact via GitHub repository.