Abstract
The search for novel therapeutic agents often looks forward, toward synthetic libraries, artificial intelligence assisted drug discovery and molecular engineering. Yet some of humanity’s most profound medical insights lie embedded in the intellectual heritage of ancient civilizations. While the Ebers Papyrus of ancient Egypt and De Materia Medica of Dioscorides are routinely cited in Western medical historiography, the Sangam literature of South India (c. 300 BCE-300 CE) remains comparatively underexplored as a source of early pharmacological consciousness.
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