history of medicine. This book has remained relevant over 600 years. During the 15th and 16th centuries alone it was published more than 35 times. In addition to the use of plants in their crude form for health care, they have been the main source for chemical drugs. Today there is a revival of interest in the use of medicinal plants in the form of standardized extracts/botanicals partly due to the high cost involved in the development of patentable chemical drugs and their multiple side effects. Botanicals such as Ispaghol, Garlic, Ginseng, Ginger, Ginkgo, St John’s Wort, Mucuna prureins and Saw palmetto are gaining popularity for the purpose of health care. The impact of journals publishing data on medicinal plants is increasing and there is a rising trend to include phytotherapy in the curriculum of medical schools in North America and Europe. Over 70% of German physicians prescribe herbs, and St. John’s Wort is more commonly used than any chemical medicine to treat mild to moderate depression. Phytotherapy is considered relatively safe as it contains multiple chemicals with a specific composition acting as ‘effect-enhancing and/or side-effects neutralizing’, though there is limited scientific evidence for this assumption. Multidisciplinary team work including ethnobotanists, pharmacologists, physi- cians and phytochemists is essential for the fruitful out- come of medicinal plants research, and such international symposia as the aforementioned conference help to achieve this goal. Revival and Preservation of TAIM Knowledge Parallel to the increasing interest in ‘modern’ CAM therapies and the historical importance of TAIM, there is a similar trend in research activities dealing with the efficacy and safety of medicinal plants in the Middle East. Historical and current studies indicate that the Eastern region of the Mediterranean has been distin- guished for long periods with a rich inventory of natural medicinal herbs. It is well documented that TAIM has contributed greatly to the development of modern medi- cine in Europe and remains one of the closest forms of original European medicine. In recent years researchers at the Galilee Society Research and Development Center, in cooperation with different institutes, have published more than 20 articles and review papers in peer reviewed Journals on this subject (8–16). These articles demon- strate the importance of traditional Arabic medicine and indicate that the Eastern region of the Mediterranean has been distinguished from other regions by a rich inventory of complementary alternative medicine, in particular herbal medicine. The data collected during these studies indicated that 200–250 herbs are still used in treating human diseases and are sold or traded in market places in the Mediterranean region or internationally. Some of these plant species have been investigated and bioactive eCAM 2010;7(4) 421 ingredients extracted to treat various human diseases and as botanical pesticides (17–20). The modern use of Arab botanical medicines has historical roots in ancient Arabic medicine. Arab herbal- ists, pharmacologists, chemists and physicians in the middle ages adopted the ancient medicinal practices of Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, Persia and India. Medical innovations introduced by Arab physicians included: the discovery of the immune system, the introduction of microbiological science and the separation of medicine from pharmacological science. Recent ethnopharmaco- logical surveys conducted by different groups in the Middle East support the necessity of proper handling of herbal medicine used in TAIM which requires suitable regulation and licensing in order to ensure supply of appropriate and safe products (8,9). Fortunately, today there is a countertrend underway to preserve natural botanical resources through an increasing emphasis on conservation by way of botanical gardens, greenhouses, herbariums, tissue cultures, propagation and seed banks. In an effort to help revive and preserve the knowledge of TAIM, an international conference on the current state of research and practice in the field was organized in 2007. This three-day conference took place in Amman, Jordan during August 8–10, and included an exhibition and poster session. The conference intended to: (i) estab- lish an institution to serve as a network for all stake- holders in TAIM, as a prerequisite to revitalizing this important subject and to coordinate research and different activities in this field; (ii) revive the heritage of TAIM in order to present it in its normal environment, in order to release it from the political restrictions of the Middle East, (iii) revitalize this heritage as a scientific discipline and raise awareness of TAIM; (iv) explore the economic and sustainability aspects of this heritage and encourage investment to develop pharmaceutical prod- ucts based on this culture and (v) increase the number of practitioners and quality of the practice of TAIM by training new and existing practitioners (21). The con- ference was designed for research scientists, local and regional traditional healers, international pharmaceutical and medical research companies, medical doctors, ethno- pharmacologists and other parties interested in the study of traditional Arabic and Islamic medicine. All bodies and institutions, research centers and interested parties working in the field of Arab medicinal plants were invited to participate in the conference, which was structured into six sessions. Discussions touched on the historical and cultural aspects of Arabic Islamic medicine and its contribution to modern medicine and to human well- being. The global scientific research on medicinal and aromatic plants, pharmaceutical research, clinical trials, as well as international legislation and intellectual prop- erty rights on Arabic and Islamic medicinal plants of the region were also reviewed. Each of the six sections