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Originally Posted by Ghap
Take penecillin as we all know it was discovered by accident but if i remember correct prior to that people used to chew tree bark which naturally containes low doses of penecillin.
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An excellent point.
Many of our modern medicines originally come from folk-practices and herbal medicine. You're still supposed to give people charcoal if they've ingested certain poisons, and how many people spent their childhoods scrubbing dockleaves on their nettle stings? If you look back on old 'how-to' home medicine manuals, between the nutty ideas there's some really sensible ones. I've seen one that recommends elderberry's for pretty much ALL common ailments; which sounds like a farce, but elderberries contain whopping amounts of vitamin C, and if you think in the past how few people ate proper vegetables (without boiling them to nothing), and the scarcity of oranges, then there's a nugget of good use there.
It's aspirin in white willow bark though; penicillin comes from certain green molds, hence why you might come across ideas like the 'moldy-bread poultice'.