For thousands of years, our people treated diseases with herbs and plants which were gathered
from gardens and forests. The recorded medical literature which now remains dates only after 10th century.
In the history of Vietnamese national medicine, two names in particular stand out before 18th century. The
first one is Tue Tinh of the 17th century, author of two treatises: Nam Duoc Than Hieu (The Miraculous
Efficacy af Vietnamese Medicines) describing 580 indigenous drugs in 3873 prescriptions for 10 clinical
specialities and Hong Nghia Giac Tu Thu. (Medical book from village Hong Nghia) summarizing the
indications of 630 drugs with a theoretical part of traditional medicine. The second name would be Le Huu
Trac (1720-1791) writing as Hai Thuong Lan Ong, author of the great treatise of traditional medicine with
more than 30 volumes.
