Phytotherapy of cattle in the past and nowadays - an evaluation of "old" indications of selected medicinal plants

Nowadays only a small amount of literature exists concerning phytotherapy, especially therapy of cattle, in veterinary medicine. Nevertheless farmers often apply medicinal plants to their cattle, a fact shown in a questionnai re. Looking back in history, medicinal herbs played a considerably more imp ortant part in the therapy of cattle in the past than today. In 18 selected books published between 1664 and 1899, one can find 260 plants traditional ly used (LUDWIG, 1996). Those 20 medicinal plants used most frequently by f armers treating diseases of cattle are critically reviewed for their useful lness, with the background of today's valid knowledge of their effects and indications. For the lack of literature on phytotherapy in veterinary medic ine it was necessary to study the corresponding literature in human medicin e. Although a major part of the medicinal herbs found require more detailed clinical studies, not only on cattle but also on other animal species, val uable information for future scientific investigations could be obtained. N ext tasks would concern the search for the most effective dosage of phytoth erapeutics for different animal species. After solving some of these proble ms, phytotherapeutics could be applied more often in veterinary practice ba sed on scientific background.